Sword Art Online: American Chronicles
by Flastor
Summary: This is a story about my brother and I fighting through Aincrad and our lives after the fact. Along the way, we meet friends new and known. We also face hardships and near impossible odds. How far will we have to go to beat the death game? And how will it change us after the fact? Enjoy! I had a lot of fun writing out this story.
1. Aincrad 1: Welcome to SAO

Two words changed my life. Two words that lead to the best, worst, and craziest two years that I could ever experience.

When my brother and I first heard about the Nerve Gear. We instantly wrote it off as another VR platform that was gonna be way too expensive and out of our price range. But come to find out it was so much more. The Nerve Gear was a full Dive System that basically beamed you into the world of the game. And was aimed to have a much lower price range to allow for as many people to play as possible. So we shelled and bought the headsets. All the while longing to play the Nerve Gears first full dive VRMMO.

Sword art Online was originally slated for launch exclusively in Japan. But when my brother and I were playing a different game, we were approached by two random people. They asked if we wanted to play Sword Art Online, or more commonly known as SAO. Both of us wrote them off as con artists trying to get some money. But, a game admin himself confirmed that they were legit workers that were scouting for hearty players to participate in the US to test the international servers before SAO launched around the world.

So we agreed and outside of the game we were able to video chat with the man that was heading the whole project, Akihiko Kayaba. Thanks to advances in technology we were able to talk without needing to have a translator. He said he had picked us as well as 100 others in the US to participate.

He said that we showed the most dedication and the best attitude that he had ever seen. We didn't really understand what he was talking about but we didn't really care. He was giving us a chance to play SAO, we weren't about to say no. Especially since they were able to implement the translate feature into VR.

So we prepared ourselves for the best gaming experience we could imagine.

1

My brother and I were sitting in the living room of our apartment, listening to a live stream of the launch of SAO. People swarmed the store to attempt to be one of the 10,000 people to score a hard copy of the game. We watched as people ran out and screamed in excitement, others taking group pictures with their games held up. It was as if you could feel their energy through the screen.

It was pumping me up and I could tell it was pumping my brother up too. He was rocking back in his chair while tapping on his desk. I was sitting on one of two couches we were gonna use to lay down in while we were in the game, watching the TV that sat on his desk.

"Man look at them run, would be awesome to be there." He snarks.

"You're telling me, I've never seen a mob quite like that," I replied.

"For sure", he knelt down next me and grabbed my shoulders and asked forcefully but playfully "So is everything ready? Huh? Huh? Is it?"

"It's been ready and running for a half a week now, but you know me, getting this put all together and not running into a single problem has me paranoid," I replied. "It would suck to have them crash while in there. Who knows what that could do."

"SSSSHHHH! don't go jinxing it you fool!" He said. We have always had some rotten luck, we never expect everything to go off without a hitch. So to have the Nerve Gear arrive on time and work properly is quite the shock.

Then our phones go off simultaneously to tell us to get ready. We both set our alarms to go off 3 minutes before SAO goes live.

"Yes... YES!" I hear my brother shout from the kitchen. I must have been focused on testing everything because I didn't even notice him walk into the kitchen. I clicked the icon that starts up SAO on his screen, then walked over and did the same for mine. The Nerve Gears both beep and the indicator lights turned on.

"Jesus it's about damn time, I don't know how long I could stand waiting around," I said in a simulated exhausted voice. "Alright, the headsets are warmed up. Everything looks good." It's still bugging me that nothing has messed up yet.

"I can tell when you think something is off. Whats up?" My brother who had returned from the kitchen asked.

"Nothing really, Just my mind racing is all," I replied. "Ok man lay down. It's time to get ready. We decided on the names we were gonna use in-game right?"

"I'm still torn. Choosing a name is so hard, always has been." He said, sitting on the couch

"I agree, good thing we got past games for that. I think you know what I am using. It's the same name I always use" I said.

"Oh, I know, Mr. Original. Flastor, right?" He said, smiling at me.

"Damn straight, I like it. And for you, why don't you just use your warlocks name?"

"You mean Maj? Majiku..." He thought for a minute, then smiled. "You know what, that sounds good. Majiku it is!" He shouts excitedly.

"Good deal, so as soon as we get in we friend each other so we can find each other. Then we immediately go hunting and grab all the quests we can. I want to be ahead of all the potential assholes out there," I explain.

"Agreed, use our same strategy for other sure we stay close, but also make sure we move as quickly as possible. Now come on, lay your ass down and let's go!" He flopped down onto the couch and put the Nerve Gear on his head. "Oh, here we go, Link Start!" All at once I see his body go limp and I know he's in.

"Alright, I guess it's my turn," I said to myself. I checked my phone and see that a friend of mine said he was on the way. So I ran down to leave the door to the complex open. I ran back up the stairs skipping two at a time. I sent him a message that said to keep an eye on the live stream that Kayaba was doing, to explain how SAO was played and also expresses the safety concerns about people playing using the Nervegear. I laid down on the couch opposite my brother and said the same words he did.

"Link Start!"

I felt a rush as my mind left my body and entered the virtual world. Before I knew it I was in a white room with an interface in front of me. The menu read "Character Customization". I didn't really get into detail on the customization. I got to the point of naming my character and typed "Flastor". A female voice echoed through the room.

"You are now going to be entered into the world of SAO known as Aincrad. Play hard and enjoy the game"

Suddenly my vision went dark, and stayed that way for a minute, even though it felt like ten. Then there was a flash of light and I was standing in the center of a town, surrounded by other people. I could hear the same "This is badass" comments every couple of seconds. I had to agree, this was amazing. It felt exactly like my body, I could smell different smells, and feel wind just like I was in the real world.

No wonder the manual said to only play for an hour or so until you were able to discern the real and virtual worlds. I start walking around looking for my brother, though it's pointless looking because I have no idea what he was going to look like. Then, a message popped up saying "New Friend Request from MAJIKU"

"Good man, he didn't change on me last minute" I clicked the yellow accept button, and immediately a person, that was about 5 feet from, flashed and his cursor above his head went from green to blue. "That must be him" I ran up behind him and jumped on his back. "Surprise bro!"

"Jesus Christ, Hi!" He said as he wiggled me off. "So what do you make of this man? We are in a virtual world. It feels so real it's ridiculous."

"I know right? It's crazy, but we are here. So let's get to work. As much as I really want to explore this town, we need to try to get a head-start on progressing."

"I hear ya, we will come back after we advance to about level 5 or so and explore." We are always on the same page it's freaky sometimes.

"I was literally thinking the same thing. Let's get going!" We both start sprinting towards the gate in the distance. Not knowing that in the real world, things had taken a massive turn for the worst.

2

We finally got our excitement under control and started strategizing. Throughout the week we poured over the SAO manual reading about the different styles of combat and how to effectively fight while in Aincrad. We practiced in the field right outside of town as to not aggro any monsters. We swung our swords and tested how different sword skills worked.

The game provided one of each weapon type available in the game for 20 minutes before you picked which one you wanted to pursue.

"So, Flastor, What are you thinking? I am probably going to go Two-Handed Sword. Try to pack as much punch in a single blow as I can."

"Well, Majiku, I was thinking more One-Handed sword, I've always liked to strike as fast as possible. Plus with actually fighting using my real body it would feel really cool to actually pull some of these moves off on the skills list." We emphasize our in-game names just cause we can't help it.

"Same with my reasoning on the Two-Handed. I'm watching little clips of what these skills look like if done properly and it's just great, I'm also thinking I'm gonna roll as a tank since there aren't any healing specs. It would probably be wise if one of us was a tank to make sure we stay alive."

We continue to strategize and make sure we have everything down to a science.

"Yo Maj, let's duel."

"Oh ho.. Am I in the presence of a badass? More like a wannabe badass." he replied.

"Bite me, I was mainly thinking we could get a sense of fighting here before we go into the field. It would be awkward to die from a freakin' pig. I'd never get over it" We both laughed and decided to duel. But instead of going all out we just spared. ade sure to not actually hit each other. After we determined that we were ready I surrendered the duel.

"Alright, I think we are ready, bro. Let's go kick ass!" I said.

We both left for our first quest, which was to kill 10 of the boars that roam around the area known as the Town of Beginnings.

"Alright here would be a good time to split up, make sure to stay within twenty meters from each other so we can get to each other if we have to. Keep an eye on each other's HP" Majiku said. I nodded in agreement.

"Let's go kill some boars then!"

About two hours had passed and we didn't even realize it. We went from killing boars, to running errands for a merchant in town (which allowed us to explore while running around). To killing some high level.. plant... things... Well, they were called Neptunes. That proved slightly difficult especially since it was the first time where we had to engage an enemy one at a time because they had so much health. So we began a practice that we read in the manual called "Switching". Where a tank, in our case Majiku, would stand front and draw aggro until he had a skill that could stun ready. Then he uses said skill to stun while I, the damage dealer, take his place and wail on it until it's dead.

We decided to have Majiku attack first and make sure he has full aggro while I position behind and prepare to strike the weak point of behind the head. After the monsters health dropped 15% he would unleash his most powerful sword skill which was an upward strike called "Slash", that knocks an enemy off balance, or Staggers, and I would jump from behind and strike the weak point with a skill of my own called "Vertical", which had the same concept as "Slash" except faster and doesn't have the Stagger debuff. After I struck I would flip to the front and take Majs' place and continue to attack until he was healed.

It was pretty crude and we could tell it wasn't quite efficient but it was working so we made do. We repeated that 5 times, and it took about 30 minutes or so.

We finally found a safe place to sit down and take in what was around us. Islands that were being held up by skinny metal spires. Mountains in the distance. And a looming white tower on the horizon.

"Jesus, who knew a plant would be such a pain to take down," Maj said, laying back on the hill we were on.

"Boy I tell ya, At least it's not a stupid tiny dog that basically instant kills you," I shot back. I was referring to a different game where, in the main city, there was a tiny dog that was neutral so you could attack it if you wanted. But the dog always had a million more HP than you and basically killed you as soon as it caught up to you.

Maj picked up my reference instantly.

"Dude not even a full raid could beat that monstrosity," We both laughed. I looked up to check the clock. 12 AM. I was shocked that it was so late. I could see this being a problem in the future.

"Crap man, it's going on 12. And Austin (the friend who was coming to the apartment) has been sitting there basically since we started diving," I said, laughing at Austins annoyed face that I know he is making.

"Oh snap, there's that and I'm sure we are both hungry too, we just can't tell in this world unless our stomachs start to grumble," Maj said back to me. Almost on cue, a low rumble came from both of our stomachs. We exchange looks and laughed again. "Well that settles it, we made good progress today, for being day one level 6 isn't bad."

"I agree, especially since I know we aren't being as efficient as we could be," I said.

"Well, it doesn't help that it's just the two of us. When did you say your friends were gonna dive in?" Maj asked as he looked to the horizon.

"Think they said next Friday when they all get paid. It's cool we were able to talk Kyaba into giving us two more copies for them."

"For sure, once they get in we could roll as two tanks and two DPS. that way we can split for those kill quests.

"Sounds like a plan to me. For now, we can only get better so we can know what to tell them when they get here."

Just then the sky went from a light blue to a blueish red tone, signaling that the sun was going down. I was the first to say what we were thinking

"Well, as much as I would love to stay we should probably bail. I'm sensing our usual 'one more quest' attitude coming on,"

"Dang man get outta my head would ya? I was literally just thinking that!"

"It's almost like we are related or something" I retort to him. "I wonder if this has a rested Buff that comes with sleeping at an inn?"

"...You know I'm not sure... How did we not look into this?" Maj stood up and offered me a hand.

"I guess I just didn't think about it. We can probably just log here and be ok." I said as I got to my feet. I took one last look around and thought to myself, 'No worries I'll be back soon'. " Well, time to log," I said as I wave my right hand to open the menu. I look over and Maj has already done the same. Only the look on his face was, disturbing, to say the least. "Hey man, what's up?"

He looked at me with a puzzled look. "Um... Can't you tell? It's not there." He said, worried.

"What's not there?"

"The freaking Logout button is greyed out," I looked over to my menu and navigated to where the Logout button should have been. Sure enough, my own button was also greyed out.

"Um, ok... I'll say it. What the hell?" I said.

I looked up at Maj. When I meet his gaze he was fixated on something that's above my head. I instantly assume there's a monster behind me and draw my sword as I spin and jump to his side. What met my eyes was not another horrible plant monster, but an open plane. I glance at Maj and see his gaze is upward, so I follow it and what I saw was a blinking red hexagon in the sky that read "System Announcement". "Well good I bet it's just a glitch and they are working on it". Right as I said that my body began to be enveloped in a light.

"And what the hell is this now?" I said, trying to step away from it.

"Hell if I know. But it's happening to me too," Maj replied. Once the light fully enveloped me It felt like my body lifted slightly. Then lowered slowly to the ground until the light faded and my eyesight adjusted. What was around me was not an open field. But the center of the Town of Beginnings, where we started 2 hours ago.

"So that's what teleportation feels like. Weird" I said to try to break the tension that I knew was growing in Maj

"Yea weird. Hey, that message is still up there," He says looking up. Before I looked up I noticed that the plaza was filled with players. It looked like every player online was teleported. "What the heck is going on?"

"Well hopefully this 'announcement' will shed some light on the subject" As if the message heard me it went from a single hexagon in the sky to the entire sky (Which is actually the ceiling to the next floor of Aincrad) filled with the red hexagon, filling the air with a reddish glow.

From the sky oozed a red liquid that looked disturbingly like blood. It slowly formed into a large hooded figure with no face. After it fully formed it slowly raised its arms and spoke in a deep voice.

"Hello everyone. I welcome you, to my world".

Just those words were enough to give me chills. The way he said 'my world', I just knew we were in some deep trouble. The hooded figure continued to speak.

"My name is Akihiko Kayaba, and as of this moment I am in control". My mind instantly went to this is a really flashy opening ceremony. At least that's what I was hoping. Kayabas arms lowered as he did the command to call up the menu. "I am sure by now you have noticed an item missing from your menu. The 'Logout' button. Let me assure you, this is not a defect." Kayaba continued emotionlessly. "I repeat, this is not a defect, this is how Sword Art Online was designed to be." My mind went blank. "One thing to note, in the event your HP hits zero, your avatar will be deleted from this world. And the Nervegear Will simultaneously destroy your brain."

That sentence hit me like a shockwave, my knees began to tremble.

"It is also impossible to leave the game if the NerveGear is removed from your head, it will also set off the signal to destroy your brain," Kayaba continued,"I have made broadcasted this worldwide. Despite my warnings, the family and friends of other players have attempted to remove their NerveGears. As a result, there are now 200 fewer players than when the game began. This has been covered by major news outlets, so the likelihood of a NerveGear being removed is minimal at best. I hope this brings you comfort as you progress."

"Oh yea, so comforting that I have a brain zapper strapped to my head, thanks, buddy," I thought to myself. I kept wishing that he would stop his speech short and shout "Gotcha didn't I?" Majiku must have been reading my face because he spoke up.

"You know he's serious right? We tried to joke around with him when we talked and he never so much as cracked a smile." He was right, which made this whole thing that much worse.

"The only way to get out of this word is by clearing all 100 floors of Aincrad, and clearing the game." Kayaba seemed to be wrapping up his death sentence. "Last but not least, I've placed an item in everyone's storage. Please, have a look."

I did as he said and produced a mirror that wasn't there before. When I held it up to my face, I was enveloped in a white light. When it died, and I looked back into the mirror, I saw me. Not my game avatar. But my real face. I looked at Majiku and he was the same way. Scruffy beard and messy curly hair and everything. I could not comprehend why a game developer that literally revolutionized the gaming World would do this.

As if on cue, Kayaba spoke again. "You are all probably wondering, 'Why? Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nervegear, do this?'" His voice remained void of emotion. As if what he was doing was perfectly acceptable. "Ultimately My goal was a simple one. To control a word of my design." Right then I knew what he was doing. My body became red hot with rage.

"Kayaba, how dare you." I heard Maj mumble next to me. I looked over and | could tell he was ready to burst.

"This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best." The massive figure slowly dissolved into nothing and the sky went back to the pink glow of sunset. For 20 solid seconds, there was dead silence. Then the entire plaza erupted in shouts, screams, and sobs.

3

Panic, disbelief, despair, determination. Those were my exact emotions in that order.

"What if Austin tries to get us out?" Unlikely. I guessed that if he was paying attention to the safety live-stream Kayaba had mentioned then that was where he revealed this whole ordeal.

"This can't really be happening... Can it?" Of course, it is. Like Maj said, Kayaba has basically no sense of humor. This is real.

"Are you kidding me? Beat an MMO? That's hilarious, MMOs can't be beaten, that's the point. They are supposed to last forever." I suppose this was just me thinking low. On the flip side to Kayaba not having a sense of humor, he's also not sadistic... OK, not sadistic enough to trap people forever.

"So, Kayaba, you want us to play through your world. Fine, It had better look good pal or the punch you're gonna get from me is gonna turn into a kick in the balls."

All these thoughts went off like rapid fire in my head. Once I regained focus on the world around me I started to take in everything. To my left, I saw a glimpse of a kid in a blue shirt hauling another older looking dude with a red bandanna out of the town center. Then it hit me, we had to move. Now.

Apparently, Maj had the same thought because he was already looking for the fastest way out of the town square. There was mass panic everywhere, but soon we were able to dodge through the waving arms and the occasional punch that was being thrown by people arguing. After we got out we made a dead sprint out of town. While we ran Maj spoke up.

"So you're thinking what I'm thinking right?"

"'If I ever see Kayaba again I'm planting my boot as far up his ass as it will go' that about cover it?" I replied.

"That too, but I was thinking about now, we gotta start grinding like crazy to get stronger, the best way to do it is stay ahead of that mob back there." He jabbed a thumb behind him towards the gate of the Town of Beginnings.

"Ok, so we need quests that drop gear. Good gear." I had to strain my terrible memory for anything we could use. Then it hit me like a freight train. "We have to set up in the next town". Maj looked at me like I had blown a fuse.

"Where's this coming from?" He asked, his face was full of worry and I couldn't blame him, early-game in anything is dangerous. Anything can kill you with one wrong move.

"I remember reading up on quests we would need to do. Me in particular for this one-handed sword called the Annel Blade. It will last me to at least the 4th or 5th floor until I will need a new one. If I remember right there may either a Two-Handed Sword as a reward or at the shops there."

"Well look at you -game-guide." Majs' tone seemed to be lightening. It probably helped that we were talking about a game. This was pretty much home court advantage for us.

"Well one of us needed to be prepared, I'm just glad I decided to read up before we came. Otherwise, we would probably be back in the town panicking with the rest." I said back. It was true, the only thing I was going on was the little information that was made public buy some of the beta testers in Japan. But that information could easily be wrong in the current state of the game. "So, not that I'm picking favorites, but me first".

"Woah now, why you?" Just then we heard a shimmering sound like digital leaves being rustled. It was the sound of a monster spawning nearby. I focused my attention forward and a wolf shimmered into existence. Without thinking I drew my blade and dashed. I held my sword up to my head with the blade parallel to my face. Then I started to feel the blade wanting to tug forward, and I let it. I let all my anger and aggression out on the wolf. In one strike it was gone.

I did all that without stopping my sprint so we kept running down the road.

"My question stands, why you?"

"Because, I'm awesome," I said with as much sarcasm as I could. "Because, dumb dumb, I know where the quest is. I don't know where the Two-Handed Sword is" I replied. "When we get there I will go accept the quest, while you head to the stores to look for it. It will have a fancy name to it. If it's not there then we will have to hunt for the quest after we are done with mine. It'll be the fastest way to stay ahead." He pondered this for a minute. While he did another monster appeared in front of us. It was a boar.

Before I could draw my sword Majiku stepped in front of me and slashed the boar in half.

"Alright then, you seem to have a plan worked out. Let's get moving."

4

We arrived in the next town to see it completely deserted besides the NPCs walking around. The town was almost dead silent with the exception of the sound of a hammer hitting metal coming from the blacksmith. We had to be one of the first players here if not the first ones.

"Ok, I'll go accept the quest, you go check out the shops, stock up on healing potions while you're there too," I explained. "Meet back here in like, 10 minutes?"

"Okie Dokie" Majiku replied. We fist pumped and parted ways. I ran towards the house that I was told sat at the western edge of town. I rounded around a building and saw the house in question. It looked like a house and store in one. It had a large window on the front with smoke rising from the chimney. I walked up to the door and out of habit knocked.

"Um... Hello? Is anyone here?" I opened the door and poked my head through. inside was a storefront lined with shelves. Each shelf had something different. Potions, food, armor. I stepped in and closed the door behind me.

As soon as it clicked shut behind me a woman appeared from the back room. Her face looked flustered and exhausted, for a moment I thought she was a player. Then I noticed that she was wearing a long dress and had a yellow cursor above her head, indicating that she was an NPC. Also floating above her head was a yellow ! which meant I was in the right place.

I approached her and asked,

"Excuse me, ma'am, is there anywhere I can take you?" No response... Ok, not the right line. "Is there anything you need?" The ! above her head turned into a ?. Sweet, said the magic words...

"Oh please traveler, my daughter needs medicine urgently, but I lack the ingredients to make it! Would you be so kind as to obtain them for me?" She explained. "I would be happy to reward you with a sword that has been passed down in my family". And like that the quest window opened and read 'retrieve 5 Neptune Seeds and return them to the shopkeeper.' I turned toward the woman.

"I would be happy to ma'am. I'll get those seeds in no time at all!" I turned on my heel and ran out the door.

I got back into the square with almost no time to spare. I saw Majiku, who had driven a new, massive sword into the ground and was leaning on it with his arms crossed, waiting under a tree. I ran up and inspected his new blade.

"Jesus that thing is huge! So it was at one of the shops?" I asked.

"Not quite, it was a reward for a quest the blacksmith gave. But it was super simple, beat the snot out of some iron ores while he rested." He replied. "Pretty easy for such an awesome sword. I guess our luck runs out here, eh?"

"You're sadly not wrong." We had both calmed down after the whole 'You are stuck here' fiasco. "Good news is we already know where to go. Bad news, it's a looting quest".

"Sweet Jesus, No!" Majiku threw his arms up in exasperation. "Looting quests suck! We have horrible luck with drop rates."

"I know this. There's more."

"There's always more."

"Remember the giant plant things? The Neptunes?"

"...Are you kidding me?" He asked, hoping I was.

"Nope, even better we will have to go deeper into the forest to find the ones we need. Which means if we hit one of the ones with the bulbs on the head instead of the flowers, and they scream, we will be screwed," I wrapped up the heartwarming description with a pat on his back. "Let's go kick some plant ass".

"This is gonna be my whole night, isn't it?" He leaned up from his sword and placed it on his back. This time, no running. We walked out of town and headed back southwest towards the forest where we found the most Neptunes before. On the way, we discussed how we would handle this. Since we couldn't attack everything we saw we couldn't split up. We also came to the conclusion that we should stay close to each other in case a monster got a lucky hit.

So we decided to use the same strategy of Majiku attacking first but instead of me circling behind I would stay right behind him, ready to vault over him to deliver the killing blow. We practiced this a few times before venturing into the woods and discovered that If I were to plant a foot on his shoulder before he finished his Slash, I could use his momentum from the skill to launch myself forward to get more out of my skill. The way it worked is you can either let the system move your body for you. Or you can use your own strength to make the skill go faster or do more damage, if not both at the same time.

After we finalized a strategy and split the potions that Majiku picked up we dived into the forest. The sun had already set when we found the first Neptune. Luck for us it was the one with the flower on it, which dropped the seeds we needed. We killed it without much trouble. It turns out that these ones are a lot faster than the ones we fought closer to the town. We were able to repeat the process of switching and killing enough times to get the 5 seeds we needed.

"That wasn't as bad as it could be. And only one close call with that bulb," I said.

"Close as in if I hadn't grabbed your leg and pulled you back we would be dead?" Majiku sarcastically asked. "We got all the seeds right? Let's get out of here before we get surrounded. I've got a bad-" Majiku was cut off by an inhuman scream that echoed from somewhere close.

Someone else was in the forest, and they hit one of the Neptune's with the bulbs on its head. "Well... That sucks," Maj cursed.

I sheathed my sword and started pushing him. He was still trying to figure out where the sound came from.

"Run... NOW!" We started to dash out of the woods as fast as we could. We got close to the edge when two Neptunes cut us off. About a million curses ran through my head that would have made a sailor faint, but all I could manage was "Crap".

There was no way we could each solo one of these things yet. They were each level 15 monsters, and we both sat at 9. We were at least 6 levels below what we would need to take them on.

"We gotta get around them somehow, we can't fight them like this".

"My turn for crazy ideas," Majiku said. He drew his blade and spun on one foot. He drove his sword right into a tree and knocked it down. I watched as the tree squashed the two plants like bugs.

"That... That works" I said stunned. We both bolted out of the woods as fast as we could.

We managed to get back to the village without running into any monsters. Which was surprising. We got to the center of town when Majiku turned to me.

"I'm gonna go rent us some rooms at the inn. I'm completely exhausted."

"Sounds good, I'll go turn this in and meet you there. Good moves out there bro." I turned to walk towards the store where the woman was waiting. While I walked my mind started to think of everything. How long would it take? It hasn't even been a day and it already feels like a century. What were my parents doing?

"Oh god... My parents" I said aloud before I could stop it. They had to have been absolutely crazy by now. They already had so much on their plate with my little sister being sick. And I told them I couldn't make it see her because Majiku and I got SAO. They were weirdly ok with it since they knew that we were lucky just to be here. This might drive them insane. I had to stop to regain myself.

I had to keep my emotions in check our I wouldn't be able to survive here. It's all a mental game, and I needed to keep my mind on the goal. I righted myself and walked the rest of the way in a daze. When I got to the store it was past 4 AM. I opened the door and saw the shopkeeper was still in the same spot with the ? over her head.

"I was able to gather the seeds ma'am, here you go," I presented the pouch to her and she took them while bowing.

"Bless you, brave traveler. With this, my daughter will have a clean bill of health," she said. Were those tears in her eyes?

"It was nothing ma'am, glad I could help" The woman presented a sword that was bluish in color with silver lining the blade.

"Accept this sword, may it protect you in your many battles to come".

"I will gladly accept this ma'am thank you" The ? over her head disappeared and a window opened in front of me displaying the EXP, Col (currency), and the Annel Blade that I earned. The woman turned off and walked into the back room.

I was turning to walk out when something told me to go check on them. I nudged myself in and saw a little girl, maybe 7 or 8, lying in a bed with a washcloth on her forehead. The woman, who was sat next to her, looked up at me and smiled. She motioned to the little girl.

"Look there honey, that's the brave man that brought you the medicine," The words barely registered in my head. I locked eyes with the little girl and froze. She reminded me of my youngest sister. Her eyes were sleepy, but still bright with life.

"Thank you, brother!" The young girl said, smiling a big smile. Ouch... That stung. A single tear streamed down my face. The girl frowned. "What's wrong?" For an NPC, this kid felt real.

I smiled, wiping the tear away.

"It's nothing kiddo. Just tired is all," I said like I was actually reassuring her. She smiled and patted the bed next to her.

"Can you stay?" OK... That did it. My sister would ask that if I was only stopping at my parent's house for something. I nodded sat on the ground next to the bed. Without knowing it... I fell asleep to the little girl humming a tune.

5

I woke up still laying at the edge of the shopkeeper's bed. About 5 different beeps were going off, each one was a message.

"Christ, I'm up..." I said without remembering where I was or what had happened. I got up and took in my surroundings, then it hit me. "Oh... Crap... CRAP!" I swiped my hand down to pull up my messages, all 5 were from Majiku.

"You lost?"

"Where did you go?"

"Are you leveling without me?"

"Seriously bro WTF?"

"She had better be hot..." I sent a quick message back to him answering all 5.

"I'm fine, no I didn't go leveling I just sat down and nodded off, and... What?" I sent it and walked out of the store. It was morning the next day. My clock read 9 AM. I jogged back to the inn, when I walked through the door there was a flash of red and I had to bend like the matrix to dodge it.

"What the hell man?" I turned to see who had tried to deck me. When I locked eyes with him I immediately felt sorry. It was Maj, standing next to the door wearing a new red long-coat that came down to his ankles.

"That! Is for scaring the unholy hell out of me you son of a-"

"Alright, alright I'm sorry." I said to him before he could finish his sentence. "I sat down for a sec and nodded off, my bad". I lied, there was no way that I was gonna tell him I had cried just because of thinking of my sister.

"Uh-huh, yeah, sure, when I meet her she had better be hot, and she better have a sister. " He said smiling like an idiot.

"Yea, OK come back to earth... I mean Aincrad. We got work to do" We sat down at a table and ordered drinks while we discussed our plans for the day. We had both concluded that before the boss fight for this floor we needed to be at least level 20.

So we set out with that goal in mind. Quests day in and day out until we had to take a break or we would have passed out. We were hoping that since this was a virtual world that we could just go without having to stop, but we found out quick that we could still get mentally tired. Which was as bad if not worse than being physically tired.

We started hearing stories and reading articles from the player ran newspapers that had started that players were passing out in the middle of fights, and had to be dragged away by their party members. So we decided to fight until we started to feel tired, then head back to town, but fight on the way back. Once the town we were in started to have a few more people in it we moved on. On the way, I picked up a coat that was almost Identical to Majikus. Only mine was a navy blue color.

"Ha! We match now, soon we will be known as the Brothers Crimson" Maj joked as we were walking out of the store where I got it.

"Why Crimson you self-centered jerkwad? Why not, the Blue Brothers?" I asked.

"Cause I hate Blues music and so do you," he replied.

"I have no argument to come back to that. Either way, I will still not be called 'Crimson' as I am wearing blue."

"Details man, it would strike fear into the hearts of our enemies," He said sarcastically. It was funny because neither of us looked very scary or intimidating. He was taller than I was, but had a scruffy beard and a goofy smile that was always on his face in some way. As for me, I'm on the bigger side with puffy, rosy cheeks. The only thing that could be considered intimidating for either of us is that our eyes are so dark that they could be mistaken as black.

"Oh yea, we will be feared by all of the nothing. Come on Red Riding Hood. We have EXP to get." I started pushing him out of the town while he was still babbling something about being a 'dynamic duo'.

I won't lie, based on the reports that I've gotten from Argo, an info broker, we were still in the top running in terms of levels and progress on the floor. There were only 2 people ahead of us. Sooner or later people would seek us out for tips or wanting to duel us to see if we were all that. We really wanted to avoid that kind of stuff so we made sure to stay at least a town ahead of the front lines.

6

A month had passed. We were one of the first ones into the labyrinth to explore for the boss room. But even with us plowing through everything the dungeon could throw at us, declining all drops so we had more room in our inventory for potions so we could stay there longer, and camping out for a week, we still couldn't find the boss room. After about the 50th dead end we got to Majiku punched the wall so hard I thought the ceiling was gonna collapse.

"I... Hate... DUNGEONS!" Majiku proclaimed. His yell echoed down the rocky walls.

"Yea, no kidding, this is starting to get old." I shared in his annoyance. If every floor was gonna take this long to search for the boss, then we were gonna be here for a really long time. "The front has been here, what, about a week and a half?"

"Yes." He replied with an annoyed tone, "And we have been here longer, almost 3 weeks man! As soon as we hit 20 we made our way here. I'm level 24 and your, what, 25?"

"Turned 25 yesterday," I replied. The way we had our style going is that I ended up with slightly more EXP at the end of our fights because I normally ended up with the last attack. "Still though, it feels like we have been through every inch of dungeon here. It would be kinda hard to miss doors to the boss room."

"No kidding, this is driving me, bonkers man!" I couldn't blame him. In every game, we played there was one thing we both hated, giant dungeons. No way to get through them quick and the monsters were almost twice as strong as the ones in the field.

Just then a message popped up in front of me, it was from my info broker, Argo. It read

"Hey there, Flastii, rumor has it that they are gonna have a meeting' to discuss what we are gonna do with this boss. It starts at 3 PM today. Since I know you and Maj are in the dungeon you better get a move on. Your pal, Argo."

"Man, you can almost hear her laid-back tone in her message," I said.

"What are you mumbling about you?" Majiku turned and saw that I had my window open. "What's up? Is it Argo?"

"Yea, she said that they are gonna have a meeting at 3 to talk about the boss. Not sure what they are gonna talk about since we still don't know where it's at"

"Got that right, plus I don't want to talk to people."

"Right? We are gonna need to get one of those wide-brimmed hats to hide our faces. Or, you know, not wear blazing red" I said, looking at his coat.

"But I look styling in this coat man!"

"Yea, OK, walking away now, it's 2:30 so we gotta get moving." I turned and started running back the way we came. The heavy footsteps behind me meant Majiku was hot on my trail. After about 15 minutes we emerged from the dungeon. The white stone floor turned to grass and the fresh air hit me like a wave of awesome.

After we got out we sprinted full speed back to town. We had gotten to the meeting just in time to hear the second part of the speaker's introduction as being a knight, followed by everyone ripping him for calling himself a knight. Since there was no actual class system in the game he was basically just talking out of his butt. He calmed the crowd down and continued as we were getting set in the back row. The speaker, who was named Diavel, continued.

"OK, so today, our party found the boss room" Everyone in the crowd stopped murmuring and got deadly serious. "Right, so we have two things to take care of. First, we need to defeat the boss for this floor and continue to the next."

"No shit, Sherlock," Majiku muttered under his breath. I elbowed him to shut him up.

"Second, we need to get the word back the people in the Town of Beginnings, that it is possible to beat this game." A few people in the crowd nodded in agreement. "In order to beat the boss, we are gonna need a raid, as many people as we can get. Everyone here who wants to participate needs to split up into groups of 6." Me and Majiku both tensed up.

"Well crap... This sucks." I said. Instantly the groups formed, it looked like everyone here were already friends.

"Well looks like we won't be the only duo out there." Majiku pointed across the Colosseum to a guy in a blue shirt and a silver breastplate. Sitting next to him... Well, I could only guess it was a girl. They had a slender figure but it was covered in a red cloak with a hood. "I like her style."

"Is it because of the red cloak or because it's a girl?"

"Yes." He smiled from ear to ear. I smacked him in the back of the head.

"Pay attention man." I looked down and Diavel was raising his hands to get everyone's attention

"OK, it looks like everyone is divided up. Now then-"

"HOLD ON A SECOND!" I nearly jumped which I'm glad I didn't. The voice came from right behind me.

Before I could turn around a shadow passed over me as a dude with orange spiky hair flew over my head and landed in the center of the theater. "My name's Kibau, got that?" He said. I could tell this guy wanted trouble. "Before we keep going I want to get something off my chest. We all know about the 200 people that have died so far?" He ranted. "Well, some of you need to apologize to for them right now!"

Yup, trouble. I looked at Majiku and he had the same feeling that we should bail. We decided to stay cause we both wanted to be in the raid. Before Kibau could continue

Diavel spoke up. "Kibau, I think I know who you are talking about, you mean the beta testers and MMO veterans right?"

"You're damn right that's who I mean!" Kibau shouted. "Ever since this game started they ran off and snagged all the good hunting spots and quests out there. They ditched all of us, beginners. They were the only ones getting stronger here"

Freaking wuss. Need mommy to hold your hand? Figure it out man, it isn't that hard.

"We should make them apologize, and give up their money, and their loot. There's no point in trusting them if they can't trust us!" He was half right, half wrong, fully annoying.

Why make the ones that you claim are the strongest here give up their gear before a boss fight. Moron. He did have a point of the vets and testers bailing, though I still didn't care much. If you want to fight, figure it out. I could tell the crowd was just as torn. Maybe because I was sure there was some here, now. Just then in the front row, a deep voice spoke up.

"Can I say something?"

I saw a really tall guy with dark skin stand up and walk towards Kibau. Kibau started to say something but stopped when he saw that the guy was about twice his size. "The name's Agil. Kibau, right? I want to make sure I understand something. You want to blame the testers and vets for not helping, and have them give up the earnings that they worked for. That about cover it?"

"Yea, so what?" Kibau said nervously. Agil dug something out of his back pocket.

"The item store is still handing these out for free. It's a guidebook. You got one right?" He said holding the book in front of him.

Kibau looked annoyed. "Yea, and?"

"You know who put this together? The ex-testers and vets." I knew the book well. Majiku and I even wrote some of it with info on questing in parties of two. Kibau got wide-eyed since he knew he messed up. Agil turned and faced the audience. "Listen up! Everyone had equal access to this information. Even so, a lot of people still died. Now, I didn't come here to point fingers. I came here to learn from their mistakes. I came here to beat the boss."

Silence. So I broke it by clapping. Not because he was right and pretty well spoken. It was for the face that Kibau had of sheer defeat. No free Col for you pal. Kibau turned and walked to the nearest seat and sat down, Agil followed and sat next to him. I'm not sure if it was just coincidence, or if it was to keep him quiet. Diavel took center stage again.

"Now that that's out of the way, can we get going with the briefing?" Diavel pulled out his own copy of the guidebook. "For info on the boss, it's all in here, the latest issue of the guidebook." Crap, I have reading to do later. "The boss's name is 'Illfang the Kobold Lord' and he is surrounded by his minions the 'Ruined Kobold Sentinels'. He is armed with an Axe and a buckler. When his last health bar goes red we switches to a curved weapon called a Talwar." He closed his guide and patted his book. "That's it for the briefing. As for the distribution of loot, money will be split equally, the party that beats the boss, gets the XP, and whoever gets an item, gets to keep it!" Seems fair to me. I looked at Maj and he was nodding his head in agreement. "Right, we meet here at 10 AM. Meeting adjured people!"

7

We made sure to actually sleep for this, something we haven't done in awhile. We would normally only sleep for about an hour. We set our alarms for 9 AM so we could go out and stock up on potions and reinforce our gear. We found this player ran blacksmith in the square. Running it was a girl with short brown hair, she was surrounded by what seemed like her friends. We walked up and asked what she was able to do? She looked up proudly and said.

"Well, since its early, not much. I can add some temporary buffs to your swords if you want?" I looked at Maj and he nodded.

"Sounds good! What are your rates?" He asked.

"Well since my level is still new I'm only charging about 150 col. Just in case it fails," I extended my hand.

"Sounds like a deal to me miss..?" She shook my hand then my brothers.

"Lizbeth. You can call me Liz." She said and smiled a big smile. We must have been the only ones that gave her some business besides her friends. Majiku handed his massive sword to her, I did the same with mine as well as a pouch of col and Liz went to work. We made some small talk with her friends while we waited, we asked if they were participating in the raid?

"Nah, we are only about level 14 each, that boss would squash us like a bug."

"Fair enough" Majuku replied.

After about 5 minutes Liz turned from her anvil that was set up.

"All done! Each has a temporary buff of sharpness. It'll run out as soon as you return to a town." She presented our swords to us. I couldn't describe it. There was a certain gleam to my sword that I had never seen any blacksmith give my sword, Majiku's was the same way. I decided to ignore it.

"Thanks a lot, Liz! Keep up the good work!" She clicked her heels together and saluted us.

"You got it! Good luck in the raid!" We turned and made our way to the edge of town to wait for the raiding party to assemble.

We hiked towards the labyrinth, the dude with the blue shirt was trailing behind us with the girl in the red cloak. I overheard their conversation without trying to eavesdrop and I was losing faith in our backup companions. He had to explain the concept of switching and being in a party. It got me thinking about how we were gonna handle the Sentinels that we were charged to keep occupied.

"Will you still be up to go forward with these guys? They are gonna be fast. Would you rather me take point?" I asked Maj.

"Are you calling me slow punk?" He put me in a headlock and lightly slapped my face.

"I'll show those Sentinels who's boss, don't you worry. Just be ready to smack them good. I have a feeling we will need to deal with them fast to keep up."

"You're Not wrong there. Maybe we should change it up a bit? After we switch the one that switches in can play as the tank while the other heals quick if needed."

"That's actually a good call little bro, sounds like we got a game plan! Go Red Riders!" He pumped his fist like he was blowing the whistle on a train.

"We gotta talk about this name business later friend. We should see if the other two behind us want to coordinate, we are all on backup after all."

"You mean the 'reject squad'? I'll show them to put me on backup." While he was mostly kidding, he and I were both annoyed that we didn't get to help fight the actual boss. But whatever, XP is still XP and Col is still Col, no matter where it comes from. The only thing that neither of us will get is the Last Attack bonus. "I got distracted, yea if you wanna fall back there and strategize I'll keep the others from shooting any more funny looks."

We both looked forward and noticed the group in front of us was, in fact, giving us a look like they were thinking 'Man they are lucky we let the small fries be cannon fodder for the front lines'. What they didn't know is that at least two of the 'small fries' that were on backup could probably mop the floor with any of them.

I couldn't speak for the two behind us but the guy seemed knowledgeable so that was a good sign. Majiku faced forward and glared at them completely straight-faced. If he had done that in the real world it wouldn't have meant much, But he did have a sword that was about as long as he was strapped to his back and the black eyes of a demon when he got angry, so they turned back around and walked a little faster.

"Well, good to know we are outcasts," I said.

"I rather like it that anyway. People annoy me." Majiku replied.

I fell back to walk side by side with the guy and girl. He immediately went on guard, his face was half anger half anguish. Like I was about to spill a secret of his and he would gladly cut me down if I did. The girl's hand went straight for the silver rapier that hung at her waist.

"Easy guys, I'm not here to patronize or anything. If you haven't noticed we have been getting the same looks too." I extended my hand to the guy. "My name is Flastor, they guy in the red death staring the jerks is my brother Majiku." He hesitated but finally let his guard down and shook my hand.

"I'm Kirito, nice to meet you." I extended my hand to the girl but she didn't take it, nor introduce herself.

"OK. well, we got assigned backup as well. So I came back to ask how you wanted to play this?" I asked.

He clearly looked troubled. He must be about as antisocial as I am. Even this much conversation made me uncomfortable. But it was to stay alive so I sucked it up. "I'm not asking to join our party or anything. I was mainly thinking for each of us to flank the boss, Just so we aren't falling over each other or messing up our combos." He contemplated this for a minute he responded.

"Yea sounds good. We will yell your way if we need something."

"Same with us, good hunting." I held up my fist and surprisingly he obliged, even the girl gave me a fist bump. Though she still wouldn't meet my eyes. I didn't get a good look because the hood covered a lot of her face. But I got a glimpse, and I saw a really pretty face and... Chestnut hair? It was hard to say but I didn't stare, cause that would be weird.

I picked up my pace to catch back up with Majiku.

"The game plan is this, we each take a side, they will go left, we will go right. If either of us needs anything we just need to yell," I said.

"Straightforward. I like it, we should buy them drinks after." He said.

"Doubt that would go over well. The dude, Kirito, seems really reserved, and the girl wouldn't even introduce herself or shake my hand, I barely got a fist bump out of her."

"Ouch, no drinks then."

"I mean we could ask, but I'm pretty sure his answer will be 'no thanks', and hers would either be nothing or 'piss off'."

We made small talk the rest of the way. Trying to keep the pre-battle jitters away. This boss will be no joke. The potential for loss of life is huge. I didn't even notice that we had gotten to the entrance of the dungeon. Up at the front of the group the party that had the map data to the boss room took the lead. We made our way through the dungeon with no trouble at all... Which is always a lovely sign.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Majiku asked.

"Shut up," I said.

"I know you are."

"Yes, I am. Shut your hole," We were both thinking the exact same thing. The last time things went this well, was before we got stuck here. Finally, we reached the entrance to the boss chamber. We had missed a really narrow walkway that had stairs going up it. Diavel walked up to the doors, turned to face the raid, and drove his sword into the ground.

"Alright everyone, I only have one thing to say, let's win this thing!" Somebody give this man the greatest motivational speech award. I glanced back and Kirito and the girl had drawn their swords, ready to dash to the left. He nodded at me and I nodded back. I turned to Maj.

"You ready?"

"Born ready, Let's kick this boss right on its ass." I should have sent him up to pump them up.

That was better than 'Let's win!' but maybe slightly inappropriate. The doors of the boss room opened and the room light up. I could hear the Kobold Lord roar and slam into the center of the room. Diavel raised his sword and shouted.

"Commence attack!"

A battle cry went out and the party flooded in. We waited for the group to clear the doors and me and Maj ran to the right side of the room, while Kirito and the girl ran left. The battle to clear the first floor had begun.

8

The battle raged for a solid 20 minutes. Surprisingly there had been no casualties at all. I was impressed with Diavels leadership, he had perfect timing to the bosses attacks. Like he could see them coming. I suspected that he was a former beta tester, but even if he was I didn't care. Really the only thing the testers had that Majiku and myself didn't have is knowledge of this game itself, and it could have easily have changed since the beta. I was able to catch a glimpse of Kirito and the girl and they were doing well. The girl had blinding speed. I could never actually see her attack. As for ourselves, we had offed five of the Sentinels and were still on a roll.

"Hey, this is actually kinda fun," Majiku spoke as I spun over him. I used the momentum of my spin to add to my new skill Horizontal Arc. Basically a slant, but going horizontal. With that, it was plenty to take down the Sentinels and move on.

"Well we are in a game, it had better be fun," I said as we moved on to the sixth.

Just then Illfang roared. We looked over and his last health bar had dipped into the red. Time for the switch. Only the plan for everyone to rush it had apparently changed. Diavel stepped forward and yelled something. I was too far away to hear him, but it looked like he was challenging the boss by himself. "You idiot! Don't go in by yourself!" I yelled as loud as I could. He didn't hear me but Kirito did. He looked over just as Illfang was drawing his... Odachi? Oh, crap.. Different sword means the beta is wrong. Kirito must have caught on to cause he made a B line to Diavel.

"Wait! It's no good! GET OUT OF THERE!" He yelled.

I turned to Maj and he nodded, his expression clear. Go. I dashed as fast as I could. By the time I was about halfway through the room (Which was maybe a second or so) the boss lunged. Only his patterns were completely random, I couldn't even follow them. Then he bounced off of a pillar and went straight for Diavel. Before he could raise his sword to defend the boss got him right across the chest.

"Damn, NO!" I accelerated as fast as I could and slid under the boss to place myself in front of him. I deflected his second blow while Kirito tended to Diavel. Everyone was too stunned to move so I snapped them out of it. "Tanks, aggro, get them away from Diavel!" I yelled.

Someone picked up because they started bashing their shields to get the attention of the boss. Illfang growled and jumped away. By the time I turned to look at Diavel he was already disappearing. When I got to him I caught his final words.

"For everyone here."

He shattered, gone.

Rage filled my body. I turned and Majiku was running towards me. The Sentinels must have stopped spawning because the girl was running this way too. Before either of them got to us I dashed to the boss and yelled,

"I'm gonna cut you into little pieces you overgrown wolf!" Majiku had to grab me and pull me back.

"Easy man, I wanna kill him too but we can't just rush in. Look where that got Diavel." Kirito turned to us.

"No offense to you guys, but it would be better if we took the boss since we are faster. Just stay close and watch our backs." He dashed off with the girl hot on his heels. I didn't argue. We definitely were wired for hitting hard, not fast. Still, I was pissed. We followed behind and stopped just out of range of the bosses attacks. We watched as Kirito deflected his sword up with perfect form, while the girl jumped in. I saw one of the eyes of the boss flash. Apparently so did Kirito because he shouted.

"Look out, Asuna!"

She got the hint and ducked at the last second. She was fine but her cloak had disintegrated, revealing a beautiful face with long chestnut hair braided into the center. She raised her rapier and lunged at the boss full force. She hit it so hard the boss stumbled back.

Sadly, It didn't take him long to regain his balance. He lunged at Asuna. Kirito moved fast, putting himself and his blade between Asuna. But he was a fraction of a second to slow and some of the bosses sword caught Kirito and sent him flying into Asuna, and in turn, her flying. Kirito was lying on his back while Asuna leaned over him. I was sure the hit wouldn't kill him. But it probably didn't feel good either. Maj and I raced to their aid. The boss had closed the distance and I was worried that we wouldn't make it in time. Just as the boss swung his sword, there was a flash of yellow over Asuna. It intercepting the bosses blade and hit it away. It was Agil. Wielding an Axe as long as he was. A shout came from behind him and his group advanced on the boss.

"We can hold this bastard off until your Health's back up." He said turning to Kirito. He nodded.

Then Agil turned to us, we nodded to him too, and raced to the boss to hold him off if not beat him. We skirmished with the boss for about a minute when one of Agils group mis-stepped and lost his balance. I was about to rush to him, But Kirito and Asuna dashed past me. Kirito jumped in and swiped The bosses sword away. Then Asuna jumped in with rapid-fire attacks.

Damn, she's good.

The final hit came from a devastating slash from Kirito, who bellowed in anger as he basically cut the boss in half vertically. The Boss stumbled then froze. He began to shine. Then he shattered.

The entire room was silent. Then it was broken by screams of victory. Majiku drove his sword into the ground and leaned on it.

"Damn, that guy was tough." He said, clearly exhausted.

"Yeah" was all I could manage. I felt like hell. Tired, angry, sad. Why would Diavel just run in? Then it hit me. He was reading the attacks so well. Like he had seen them before. He was so confident in what the boss was gonna do that he had a sword skill ready before the boss had fully switched weapons. He was a former beta tester. If that was the case then he was gunning for the Last attack. I drove my fist into the wall next to me. "You stupid, reckless, idiot," I said under my breath. Then a shout came from the center of the room.

"STOP CHEERING!"

It was Kibau. Sitting, in tears. "Why did you do it huh? Why did you let Diavel die?" He directed his question to Kirito, who was kneeling where the boss was. He looked like someone had just slapped him.

"Let him die?" He must have been wiped too because that's all that came out.

"You heard me!" Kibau yelled. "You knew what the bosses attacks were gonna be, didn't you? You could have warned him!" I was so stunned I couldn't process a thought. Of course, he didn't know beforehand. And if Kibau was listening Kirito and myself told Diavel to get out. But he didn't. Another player chimed in.

"I know how he knew, he used to be a beta tester!" The random guy explained.

"Think about it! He knew the bosses attacks! He knew, but he kept it from us!" You dolt! Anyone with a gaming brain should be able to see the difference. I was about to shout "Shut your damn mouth" when Kirito started chuckling, then it turned into all-out laughter.

"So you guys think I used to be a beta tester?" He stood, his eyes took a sinister shadow to them, but I could tell he was freaking out. "It's not right to put me in the same class as those NOOBs," He said with a condescending tone. What are you doing man? You're gonna make them-. I instantly understood his motive.

Kibau spoke up. "Wha-What did you say?"

"You heard me! Most of the testers in SAO were new. They were so green, they didn't even know how to level up." Kirito explained, walking to the center of the room. "But me. I'm nothing like those guys man. I made it to floors higher than any of the testers. I knew about the boss because I fought more monsters on higher floors with way more sword skills." He lowered his gaze and smirked. "I know a bunch of other things too. More than anyone. More than any info broker."

Thoughts were racing through my head. You made your point man shut up. Kibau looked up from the ground and looked eyes with Kritio. Bitterness and anger swelled.

"If that's true then you're worse than a tester. You're a goddamned cheater, that's what you are!" Others chimed in with Kibaus remarks.

"He's a beta tester and a cheater! He's a Beater!" One yelled. This made Kirito perk up. He found his opening.

"A Beater, yea that's good. OK, you can call me a Beater. Just make sure you don't class me with those testers anymore." He opened his inventory and equipped a studded blue trench coat that flowed to a rest around his ankles. He shot another proud smile to Kibau and walked away. I wanted to run after him, but that would kill the effect he was going for. Suddenly the girl, Asuna, ran up to meet him before he got all the way up the stairs. They were out of earshot so I couldn't make out all of their conversation.

"How did you know my name?:" I heard her say.

"But, you're a solo player" Was another thing I caught from her. With that, he turned away and walked out of the room towards the staircase to the next floor. Leaving Asuna, and everyone else behind.

End Part One.


	2. Aincrad 2: Friends and Foes

1

About a month or so has passed since the first floor was cleared. Honestly being here, I didn't really keep track of time. The front has made decent progress, we made it all the way up to floor 15. Averaging almost a floor or more a week. That's saying something! Since it took us almost a month to clear the first floor.

Leading the charge was Kirito and Asuna. Who, to the best of my knowledge were partied only to teach Asuna the ropes.

Yea, OK. A likely story from one of them but whatever. As for me and Majiku, we hunted like crazy. we were averaging about 2 or 3 levels a week. which put us each at 38. I tried to talk Majiku into getting a smaller two-handed sword so he would move faster by default. But, he was hell bound to make the massive sword work. So we trained. Eventually, he was about as fast as an average one-handed sword user. Which, in terms of using a two-handed sword, was crazy.

As for me, there wasn't much to tell. I focused on the speed of my attacks on top of the damage I already knew how to do. We had perfected the art of switching in the style of me spinning over him and delivering the final blow to any monster. It worked 9 out of 10 times. If not it took a few extra slashes from me to do the trick.

As we all were getting stronger there was resentment forming in the other front liners.

They were convinced that all 4 of us were former testers and wanted them to die. This thought pissed me off to no end. It's not like we were hoarding information. Everything Majiku and I learned we sold to my info broker, Argo. She, in turn, depending on the kind of information, added it to the guide that was still being handed out for free, or added it to her store to sell. So no information hoarding. It was all about how much you worked and how fast. But they wouldn't listen to reason and I didn't care.

There was one fight when Kirito and Asuna had led a secret raid in order to get the Last Attack bonus on the boss. Normally I would have called him on it. But when he explained that it was to keep the 2 major front-line guilds from fighting I let him explain.

"The boss drops a banner. This banner, if used by an official guild, will empower all other guild members in a certain range," He explained while we ate at a local restaurant on floor 4. "The banner would cause a massive fight for who gets it."

"And that, in turn, could turn into a massive bloodbath and halt any progression" I finished.

"Prissy girls fighting over drapes. Why don't they make a unified guild to use it?" Majiku asked, clearly annoyed.

"I wondered the same thing, but the guild's leaders don't see eye to eye, so I can't see them joining forces anytime soon," Kirito finished.

We agreed to help him, along with other trusted players, fight the boss so he could get the banner to keep them from fighting. We succeed before the two guilds had even formed the party to take the boss on themselves. Needless to say, it drove in the reputation of the 4 of us as being lowly snakes that are trying to sabotage the game.

After all of that, we decided to take a week off from the front and go back to the 3rd floor. The only way to get around was by boat. It was like Venice, Italy. We both really enjoyed this place. It was calm. The stores were neat, and the food was awesome. While we were there we left each other to our own deal.

Majiku went on through the town, trying to find a girl apparently. I had to remind him that the odds of finding another American player here were slim since we were 2 of about 100 that were given access to play. He clearly didn't care.

So he went off to hunt for girls while I rode through town on a gondola. I didn't have a goal in mind. Just explore. I was thinking about going hunting later for materials to enhance my sword. As if her ears were ringing Argo the Rat swooped in from nowhere and sat in my boat. I nearly fell backward.

"Christ Argo! I did not give you permission to come aboard," I said regaining my balance.

"Oh come on, Flastorii," I'm not sure where she pulled the name from, but there was no arguing with her. "Can't ya show a girl a good time? Take me for a spin outside the city."

2

I guess I didn't have much of a choice. Argo situated herself to where she was laying on her back with her hands behind her head.

"So... I'll bite. Why am I taking you outside of the city?" I asked.

"Oh, you're so impatient! Just enjoy the company of a cute girl for the next hour or so," She chided back to me.

"Yea well normally when I hang out with you I find myself with about 1000 Col less than when we met."

"Don't worry, Flastii. This meeting is on-the-house," She said as she closed her eyes.

Did she really just fall asleep? I leaned over and lightly poked the top of her head. Nothing.

Dang, she's worse than my sister.

The eldest girl in my family had a crazy ability to fall asleep as soon as she found a comfy spot. I let her sleep as I navigated out of town. The floor was pretty much all woods, but instead of roads, there were river channels. I couldn't shake the feeling that Argo wanted to talk about something important... Or maybe she really did just want to take a load off.

In which case why me? There were plenty of other spots so rest. Better than a small gondola. We got a fair distance out of town when she yawned and stretched her arms.

"Ah, that was nice," She said.

"I bet, how long has it been since you slept?" I asked.

"Mmmm... Say about 3 days or so," She said, scratching her chin.

"Argo, what the hell?" I almost wanted to knock her out so she could sleep more.

"That's my line of work, can't rest for too long or my information will go south," She sat up and turned to me. "Were we followed?" She took a slightly serious tone. I turned to make sure there was no one in sight. Even so, I turned the boat into an outcropping to hide.

So she did have something to tell me, and she didn't want others to listen in.

"Ok, so you didn't come out here to hang out. What's up? Get messed up in the wrong crowd again?" I asked.

"I have no idea what yer on about! I'm an Angel!" She shot back.

"Yea, an Angel that had to be bailed out by Kirito when she got wrapped up with those weird ninja wannabes."

"I... You heard about that?" She tried to hide her face under her hood, but I knew she was blushing.

"Well I was on my way to help, I saw your marker on the map running faster than usual."

"Ah, so you were stalkin' me eh Falstii?" Walked right into that one. My turn to switch shades.

"Um... No! I was reading the map and just saw your cursor that's all," I said getting the conversation back on track. "So what's up?"

"Well, there's been an interesting development in the Town of Beginnings that involves you and your bro," She explained. I sat down across from her. "Rumor has it that A couple of people have been looking for you. They say that they know you."

My mind raced. I didn't know anyone else here. It was only me and my brother who dived in... Unless...

"Names... I need names, Argo," I said, trying to hide my panic.

"See that was one of the things that no one could get straight. So I went back to the Town to find out. I actually found them and said I would come get ya. It's a guy and a girl. The guy's name is Austin. The girl's name is Peyton," I shot to my feet so fast the boat almost rolled over. "Woah boy! This thing ain't built for rough seas," She said holding the sides of the gondola.

"Take me to them... Now!"

As soon as I felt the ground under my feet I raced off the teleport platform. I had sent a message to Majiku to meet me here in town. Sure enough there he was. I grabbed him and dragged him off to the edge of town where Argo had taken the two people in question.

"You seriously think it's him?" He asked as we swerved through the mass of people.

"I'm 90% sure I'll know the guy, I'm hoping I don't know the girl," I said back.

We left the town and turned hard left, following the walls that lined the entire town. Pretty soon a tree came into view, standing around it were 3 people. I recognized Argo right off. The other two had their backs to me. They must have heard our footsteps cause both of them turned around. When they locked eyes with me I nearly tripped. The guy was slightly shorter than my brother... So still taller than me.

The girl was about the same height as me with long black hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. I felt my face burn with anger. As we were running up the guy stepped forward, probably expecting the usual handshake.

"Hey man! Glad we finally fou-," I didn't give him the chance to finish his sentence. I planted my fist right on his face and sent him tumbling back. Good thing the girl and Maj grabbed my arm halfway through or it could have been a lot worse than his health going down 10%.

"Christ, Drake. That's what we get for coming in after you?" The girl asked.

"For crying out loud man, give them a break," Argo said putting herself in between me and the guy.

"You idiots! What the hell were you thinking coming in here?!" I yelled. Majiku let go of my arm and looked at the guy.

"I know who you are. Don't think I've had the pleasure of meeting you miss..?" He extended his hand to her.

"Peyton," She shook his hand.

"So, Peyton?" He looked at the guy. "And your Austin, right?" The guy got up and rubbed his face.

"Yup, good to see you again, Alex," He said. Another wave of anger settled in me, but I held back the urge to punch him again.

"Two questions, moron. Why are you here? And what in gods name were you thinking? Bringing your girl into all of this man?" I said as controlled as I could. Austin and Peyton exchanged looks and smiled.

"Well, multiple reasons. I had promised to game with you when I got out of school for the summer. And..." He looked down mournfully.

"And your sister asked us to come," Peyton finished. I was stunned. I looked at Majiku, he was clearly as stunned as I was.

"Our sister? Courtney asked you to come?" Maj asked. In the real world, Peyton was a good friend and classmate to my sister, also dating Austin. He was also a friend of mine from way back in grade school... Small world we lived in sometimes.

"We were hanging out with her the other day. She's grown really depressed. Thinking that you two were all alone and freaking out in here."

"Except, from what Argo has told us, and your right hook, you two are heading up the front-lines, clearing the game," Austin said. He got up and brushed himself off. "We talked, and Payton and I both decided to dive in and help. Even got it cleared from your parents, our parents, and even schools, after about a month of begging that is," I stared at him in awe.

This was not like Austin. He normally thought things through, So why in the hell did he decide this was a good idea? "So... Yea... Your family says 'hi'. Courtney wants to slap you both," This made me lighten up a bit. It was hard to turn my sister down. Especially when she was sad... Which was normally never.

"So... You both are here now. What exactly is your plan? There is no way we can let you go to the front now. You are too far behind and we can't stay away for very long," I explained. "So you guys have one of two options, grind like hell to at least get up to par with the front lines level. Which currently sits at like, 20 or so. Or set up a shop somewhere. Work on a craft skill. Both would be helpful in the fight right now," Maj stepped forward to add to it.

"If you guys want to level and fight that's fine, we can help you at least get the hang of fighting and carry you to level 10 or so. After that me and Drake, or Falstor, in this world-" Argo spoke up and looked at me.

"That's your name IRL? Like the explorer?"

"Same spelling at least yeah," I realized my mistake too late. "If I find out you sell any of our real names Argo, I swear, I will sick every fluffy puppy I can find on you," This made her flinch.

"Ah, Jesus," She said, clearly flustered. "Don't worry I wouldn't even with the threat of those mongrels," she said crossing her arms. "Stupid beasts," For some reason, she was deathly afraid of dogs. "Besides, this whole meeting is off the record. Especially since it's a rare case."

"Good, thank you," I said. I faced Austin and Peyton... Which reminded me of something else. "Also with the names you two. Why? Why use your real names?" I chuckled a small but.

Austin smiled. "We figured if you were still in the first town it would have been the fastest way for you to spot us."

"Turns out you were so far out of the first town that it was a miracle we found Argo, selling a newspaper of the latest boss fight," Peyton said, fishing out a newspaper with a screenshot on the front. The picture had me mid-spin over Majiku with my sword in the pre-slash stage on the right side, and Kirito and Asuna on the left. I'm pretty sure that Kirito and myself were racing for the last attack.

"You didn't catch my good side, Argo," Majiku said.

"You try taking good screenshots during a boss fight and get back to me slick," she said. Majiku laughed.

"Alright fair point," Maj said, surrendering.

"Anyway, we found Argo and bought her paper. We both had a mini panic attack when we saw you. So Argo asked if we knew you, and we explained" Peyton finished.

"That was about a half an hour before we went on our little cruise alone Falstii," Argo said. Majiku elbowed me and Austin flashed me a wicked huge smile.

"You dog you, And you were telling me not to flirt with the ladies," Maj said. I was trying extremely hard not to turn red.

"It wasn't like that! Ugh, I'm not gonna hear the end of this one," I said. I turned to Argo who was, weirdly enough also turning a slight shade of red, but still smiling. "Anyway, what do you guys want to do? If you want to go down the crafting route I've got some people in mind that I'm sure would be happy to mentor you. That's not saying that you aren't gonna learn to fight. But we will have to spread the times out between craft, and battle," Peyton and Austin exchanged looks like they were having a mental conversation.

Couples, how they did that, I will never know. Though I guess I couldn't say because I never actually found that one person I click with. They both looked back to me and Austin spoke up.

"I think we are gonna go down the crafts route. There's too much for us to learn in terms of combat and not enough time to learn it," I was relieved in a way. I wouldn't have to worry about them being in any tough line of fire.

"Ok. So I have an idea of who can help you. A blacksmith, and a shopkeeper. Austin, I'll pair you up with the shopkeeper, Agil. Peyton, I'll introduce you to Liz. She's just getting started, but she knows her way around an anvil," I said. I turned to Maj. "Since you know Austin more, could you take him to see Agil? I'm almost positive he will accept the extra help."

"Sure, I've got some stuff to sell to him anyway," Majiku said turning to Austin and Peyton. "We all need to friend each other. So if you get in a jam, you can message us," After the friend's list exchange we parted ways, promising to meet up on floor 3 for some good seafood.

"I'll go along with Flastor to make sure he doesn't bust any moves on ya girl Austin," I grabbed her by the back of her collar and dragged her away. Once again, when she decides something there was no talking her out of it. We traveled to the 15th floor. where Lizbeth had set up a blacksmiths shop for the front. As we walked Peyton spoke up.

"So, I'm not that great with a hammer, will that be a problem?"

"Most likely no. Unless Liz wants to go all out on training you. Most likely you will work the actual storefront while she works on the weapons," I said.

"Yea, she needs a pretty face for the front of the house! Ain't that right Flastii?" Argo asked. Clearly trying to tick me off.

"Argo, you're seriously killing me, don't you have.. info to go broke or something?" It wasn't a very good comeback.

Argo looked at Peyton and made a weird face that I assume was supposed to be mine. They laughed. I felt bad because she apparently remembered me from when I was back in High School and I completely didn't know anything about her. It wasn't that I didn't try. It was that she was one of my sister's friends that I probably used to drive around when they couldn't drive.

So having Argo there, to help lighten the mood by annoying me was helpful. We got to the town where Liz had bought a small building to operate out of. We walked in the door and I called out.

"Liz? Are you in? It's Flastor and Argo! I have a friend here who wants to ask you something!" Peyton looked at me really nervous all of the sudden.

"Wait, I'm gonna ask her? I thought it was gonna be you?"

"Well, I'm not the one that's gonna work with her," She puffed her cheek out in annoyance.

"Fine,"

We walked in and found Liz hard at work in the back of the building. She must not have heard me because of the hammer. I walked up behind her and tapped her shoulder. She yelped and swung her hammer at my face, which connected perfectly, and sent me flying into the wall.

"Ow... Hey, long time, no see," I groaned. She got up and scolded me.

"Who the heck said you could scare me like that?" She said.

"Who the heck hammers her customers who are trying to get help?" I shot back.

"...Fair enough, sorry," She said as she offered a hand. I got up and turned to Peyton.

"Liz, this is Peyton, a friend of mine. She's interested in working with you," I explained.

"Ah... So you want to be a blacksmith huh?" Liz got that look of 'I so got this'. "In that case my apprentice best start while the day is young!"

She grabbed Peyton's arm and dragged her to a shelf and started explaining the differences between certain ores. She's in good hands. Especially if Liz was willing to actually teach her to be a blacksmith. There was something about the way Liz smithed her swords. Like there was more than just game data melded in them.

"Well ladies, have fun, don't make her brain explode Liz. She's had a long day," I called and walked out of the shop with Argo. As I was gonna ask if she was gonna go back to work Argo looped her arm around mine and got extremely close.

"Care to treat me to lunch, Boy?" I tried to free my arm but it was no good.

"Oh, I suppose. Got a place in mind, Girl?" I asked, looking away to hide my unease.

"There's a lovely place on floor 4. They have some good noodle bowls."

"You had me a Noodles, lead the way."

After a good meal, We went back to floor 15. It was weird that Argo was spending so much time away from the front. I decided not to ask because she probably wouldn't answer. As we were walking up to Liz's' shop I got a message.

"Go ahead in, I'll be in shortly," She nodded and walked through the door.

The message was from Majiku. It read,

"You need to get down here... NOW,"

I replied with. "What happened? Are you ok?" Panic was filling my body. I thought something had happened to Austin.

After a few seconds, I got a message back. All he said was.

"PKers on Floor 2,"

3

My blood turned to ice. I ran in to grab Argo. When I did I was stunned. Peyton was standing in front of the anvil, Liz watching over her shoulder, pounding on a piece of metal. After one more hit it melded into a dagger.

"Awesome! Let's take a look," Liz said. She picked it up and tapped it, pulling up the stat window. "Hey, not bad for your first weapon," She handed it to Peyton. "Go ahead and keep it. Use it well."

"Thanks! I will," Peyton said, she inspected the blade proudly. She noticed me in the doorway. "Check this out! My first knife!" She held it up for me to see.

"That's great bud! I gotta borrow your mentor for a sec, you too Argo," Liz patted Peyton on her back and handed her another bar.

"Go ahead and keep practicing!" I ushered Liz and Argo to the front half of the store so Peyton couldn't hear us talk. "So what's wrong? You look like a ghost."

"PKers..." I could feel the tension rise as I said it.

"PKers? Player Killers? Really?" Argo asked, clearly skeptical.

"Majiku messaged me, he said they were on Floor 2," I said. Liz looked horrified.

"Where on floor 2?" She asked.

"Not sure, but we need to meet up with Maj and the others. Peyton might need that knife sooner than I wished," I said, looking back to the doorway.

"We can't take her dumb-dumb, we haven't had the chance to train her," Argo said.

"I know, but we can't leave her here. I have a bad feeling," A thought was nagging in the back of my head, but I kept it at bay. "Liz, do you want to com-"

"Yes," She said before I could finish. "I sent my friends down there on a metal run this morning. I haven't heard from them since." I understood why she looked so bad.

"Got it. Let's grab Peyton and get moving."

We got to floor 2 and raced to the forest that Majiku and Austin were. Apparently, they were gathering some materials for Agil when they saw the group. They had stayed hidden but didn't want to move without backup. We got to the edge when I stopped the group.

"Since we don't know what's going on we need to be really careful. Stay on guard and keep a sharp eye out. If you see anything say something, but don't say it loud, just tap the nearest person," The girls nodded and readied their weapons. Liz, a mace and shield, Argo, some claws, and Peyton with her new dagger. "Alright let's go."

Before we left for the woods. I had gone to the nearest shop and bought a teleport crystal and set it to the prison. It cost almost all of my Col but it was better than going in and killing everyone.

I also sent a message to Kirito, letting him know to stay on guard and where we were heading, in case we didn't come back. So we ran, as fast and as quietly as we could. As we got deeper into the woods the canopy of leaves started blocking out the sun. It got to the point where it was almost night time.

Finally, we got to where Majiku and Austin were camped out. When I approached Majiku swung his sword behind him. I ducked under it and held my hands up.

"Easy man! It's us," I said. waving to the other to make sure they were all visible.

"Jesus. Don't do that," Majiku sheathed his sword.

"So what happened?" I turned to Austin and his eyes were wide. Peyton walked to his side and took his hand.

"It was bad, man. there was a huge ring of people maybe 6 in all. They had surrounded a group of 3. After they forced them to basically strip down to nothing, they just..." He didn't need to finish. I scanned our surroundings. I was working on my detection skill. Unless the players had a ridiculously high Hide Skill, I would sense them. Maj seemed to be reading my mind.

"Already tried man. They won't show up. They were wearing cloaks. I'm assuming they have a stealth ability. They won't appear to us until maybe they are 3-4 feet from us."

"Damn. Ok, we need to get out. Now." I looked at Liz and she looked like she was on the verge of tears.

"Was one guy wearing brown? Wielding an ax, with a dragon logo on the handle?" She asked, shakily.

From nowhere the ax she just described materialized into the ground right in front of me.

I turned, pulled Liz and Argo behind me, and had just enough time to deflect a throwing knife with my blade. 5 more whizzed past my head. I got two, while the others were knocked down by Majs' massive sword.

"Show yourself!" I yelled.

A sinister laughter raised from all around us. Six figures emerged from the shadows and surrounded us. Majiku pushed Austin and Peyton behind him. Liz and Argo flanked my shoulders. "What do you want?" I demanded in the sternest tone possible.

"Oooh. Not much really. Just everything you have on you. And maybe a crack at one of the lovely ladies you have with you," The guy in front of me sneered.

"How about you come over here and I'll crack you on the head pal?" Liz said. She sounded tough, but her arms were shaking a small bit. This must have been her first fight in a while. "Where did you get this ax?"

"Oh, one of our playthings left it for us. Such a shame, they were too weak to last very long. But you all look like you will last a good long while," The guy under the hood said. "Shall we get on with the show?"

This was bad. There was no way we could take all 6 while protecting Austin and Peyton. Argo leaned in so I could hear her.

"Listen. Liz and I will fall back and guard the two newbies. You and Maj wipe the floor with these clowns," It seemed solid.

Based on their gear the groups level had to average around low 20s at best. Maj and I almost had a 20 level difference on them.

But still, 2 on 6 were horrible odds. I was able to look far enough to the side to see Liz without taking my eyes off the guy in front of me. She had tears streaming from her face. But she nodded in agreement.

It was settled. If we were gonna go down, we were gonna go down swinging. I was able to catch a glimpse of Austin and Peyton. She was standing behind him with her knife clutched to her chest, while Austin held his arm out holding her back.

He held a curved sword that I assume Agil gave to him. At least he had some experience wielding a blade. But not a lot.

I locked eyes with Maj and mouthed 'Switch' as subtly as I could. He nodded. Then I turned to face the guy in front of me. His teeth were yellow and crooked like someone had punched him as a kid and they never grew right. "Fine," I said. "Let the show begin."

4

"Jump!" luckily Liz and Argo were the only ones that caught on. We launched into the air. I grabbed under their arms and flung them higher to make sure they got out of the way. The group advanced but Majiku stepped in and swiped his sword in a wide arc. He connected twice and sent 2 flying back. The others dodged.

2 down 4 to go.

The goal was to get them so far in the red that they couldn't fight, not to kill. I held up my sword horizontally to allow the girls a way to redirect to land in front of Austin and Peyton. Then I landed shoulder to shoulder with Majiku. I stared 2 down, taunting them. They hesitated but then charged. The two facing Maj did the same. The two advancing on me made the mistake of coming straight for me, instead of flanking me. Just before their blades hit, I jumped and spun, slashing both of their hands.

I hit them just right to where they dropped their knives. They stumbled as I landed behind them. I spun and slashed their backs. Both of their health bars had only a sliver of health left. They kneeled on the ground and yielded. I turned to face Maj and he had successfully disarmed his foes as well.

Was it really gonna be that easy?

"Stop!" I heard a man's voice say behind me. I turned. The two that had gotten knocked into the woods apparently were not down. They had disarmed Austin, Liz, and Argo. I couldn't tell if Peyton still had her knife, but I assumed she didn't. They pinned Argo and Liz to the ground, holding their heads up by their hair. Rage filled my entire body.

"Let them go!" I growled.

"Drop your weapons tough guys, and maybe I'll consider." I didn't have a choice. I dropped my sword, so did Maj, and raised my hands up.

"There, dropped, let them go, now!" I demanded. A sharp pain hit the back of my head. One of the ones that Maj disarmed had re-armed themselves and slammed the butt of his knife into my head. I fell down and he leaned on my back. He pulled my hair up and made me look towards Argo and Liz.

"Just for making our lives that much harder, you get to watch as we kill the girls." I squirmed but the guy put his knife to my throat. "Be a good boy now."

The guys holding down the girls held their knives up, getting ready to bring them down. From behind the guy, Peyton yelled defiantly as she revealed her knife that she had hidden behind Austin. She drove it into the back of the guy that had Liz. Then I felt the guy that had me ease up a bit. I used the opening to twist out and punch him in the face.

The guy that had Argo began to drive his knife to her neck. I grabbed my sword and did the only thing I could think. I swung upwards and cut his hand off. His hand fell to the ground, disappearing when it hit.

Maj swept his legs under the two in front of him and knocked them down. He picked up his sword and slashed all 4 back down to the red. I grabbed the guy's throat and shoved him into a tree, lifting him off of the ground by 4 inches.

"I am gonna rip your throat out and feed it to the nearest wolf I can find you f-ugly bastard!" I yelled in rage. Before I could do anything Argo ran up and grabbed me from behind. She buried her head in my back.

"Easy, boy," She said weakly. I felt the rage drain from my body. My head cleared up and I realized that everyone was staring at me, and I had my sword pressed so far into the guy's throat that there was a red cut mark, and his health was slowly draining.

When his health dropped into the red I let him go. He crumpled to the ground and looked up at me. I got a good look at his face. He had a tear streaming down his face, and he was in sheer panic.

"You are all going to the Black Iron Palace. Or die by my sword," I said. I didn't mean the last part, but all 6 of them obliged. I held up the corridor crystal and opened it. Majiku ushered them in. I stood ready all the way until the corridor closed.

As soon as I was sure they weren't gonna come back through I sank to my knees, leaning on my sword. All of the energy just drained from my body. As I sat there I felt someone grip my head. Argo pulled my head down next to hers. We all just sat there, still and silent.

5

We decided to extend our stay away from the front for another 3 weeks. We still trained. Maj trained Austin, while I had help from Argo, training Peyton. We asked Liz if she wanted to hang with us for a while longer. She went from having great friends to being alone. She refused.

"I just... Want to be alone for awhile," She said, clearly broken. I told her I would stop by the shop later to check on her. She just nodded and walked away.

"Give her time, those guys were with her since the beginning. And I think she may have been crushin' on the one that had the ax," Argo said, standing extremely close to me.

After the incident, Majiku had recounted what had happened from his perspective. I had gotten out from under the guy that had me, picked up my sword, lobbed the guys hand off, and pinned him to the tree, all in the span of one second, at the most. My eyes were so dark that they might as well be black and bloodshot. So that would be why Argo held me back. I'm surprised she could stand near me after that.

Peyton never met my gaze, and Austin talked to me differently after that, like he met a different person. A darker one. I couldn't blame them. They were so eager to help, only to have that happen. But they were determined. Austin wanted to continue to train and he said he wanted to keep helping Agil in his shop. They must have really hit it off. So Maj took him back to Agils shop. Argo trained with Peyton while I sat under a tree. They spared while Argo shot out suggestions.

"Step left."

"Slide right."

"Jab now!"

Peyton was getting faster. Which was good if PKers were starting to appear. Maj kept me informed of Austin's training and he was also improving. After a few days, I took Peyton to Liz's new shop on the new front of floor 19. When we walked in she was wearing a pink dress, and had pink hair. She turned and smiled.

"Welcome to Lizbeth's Blacksmith Shop," She said. Her eyes were closed so she didn't see who it was, and I was worried when she did she would throw the nearest sharp object at my head. When she did open her eyes her face turned serious. I braced myself, but instead, she locked eyes with Peyton. "Where the hell have you been, apprentice? Makin' me set up shop by myself!" Peyton was wide-eyed.

"I.. Um... Well," Before Peyton could form a full sentence Liz walked up and grabbed her arm lightly.

"No time, we have a lot of work to do. Soon the front-liners will be here and I'm gonna need help keeping things organized!" She ushered Peyton into the shop and explained how the new arrangement was set up and laid out a schedule balancing store hours and Peyton's smith training. I watched, half amazed, half worried. There was no way she had gotten over something like that. But maybe helping Peyton and having someone to hang with while she worked was the best for her.

I looked at Argo who was standing next to me. She looked back and smiled.

"See? Told ya she would be fine," She turned to walk out. I looked back and Peyton was looking at me, smiling, but in sheer panic of the information overload from Liz. I smiled, gave her a thumbs up, and waved.

"So what's your plan, Argo?" I asked her, somewhat worried about her answer.

"I'm headin' back to the front. I made sure to publish the PK story so everyone knows to watch themselves. But being 4 weeks behind means there are 4 floors of info I need to gather."

"Yea Majiku and I are heading back there too. I'll make sure to keep you updated with anything we find."

"Sounds good, watch yourself out there Flastii," She hesitated like she changed her mind about something, then smiled.

"You too Argo, sound off if you need us, OK? And sleep more than every 3 days" I said.

Epilogue

A few weeks passed and both Austin and Peyton had settled into a routine of helping at their respective shops, training, and taking over when their mentors were either running errands or participating in boss fights if needed. The boss fights mainly applied to Agil.

Since the incident, Liz had mainly focused on smithing. Majku and I would stop by every once and awhile to either check on her or have our equipment serviced. She seemed to have her old charm back. She was also fiery as ever. Our visits were always pleasant. But leaving always left me with some dread.

Every time I would turn to leave. I would see the ax of her fallen friend that she always hung above the door to her shop. It was a truly beautiful ax, though I never asked her if it was for display or a reminder, or a warning to not leave a safe zone.

END OF PART TWO


	3. Aincrad 3: Purple Moon

It's been about a year and a half after this nightmare began. Majiku and I have participated in every boss fight. Kirito and I sort of sparked a rivalry between ourselves without meaning to. We were always competing for the Last Attack bonus of every boss. Of course Kirito won them every time, he was wicked fast.

I had been trying to keep up on his deeds.

The worst that I heard from him was that he was questing with a guild that had gotten wiped. Not a lot of people knew about it so we decided to keep that to ourselves.

I thought about seeking out Kirito after that, to at least let him know he wasn't competently alone in this messed up world. But I wasn't sure how he would react to that. So I let him be, just kept tabs on him.

Meanwhile Majiku and myself were making ourselves faster and stronger. Majiku still wielded a massive sword. But he leveled in such a way that he could keep up with the fastest one handed sword with no problem.

As for myself I liked to think I was on par with Kirito's speed. He only beat me to those last attacks by maybe a second. There was no way I would ever surpass him, but I could come pretty damn close.

We were making a name for ourselves too. Word on the street was people would call Majiku the "Crimson Cannon", and they would call me the "Blue Blur".

I thought it was stupid, mostly cause I couldn't figure out why. I got my answer when I paid Argo 250 Col to tell me. The story is that when people see us fight a large monster that has a weak point out of jumping range, they saw that Maj would launch me from his shoulder up to the weak point to hit it, hence the name "Cannon".

And for myself, to them I was so fast when he launched me that I was only a blur of my navy colored coat and the blue glow of my sword skill flying through the air. Combined that earned a collective name for both of us, 'The Cannon Brothers'.

When I heard this I wanted a refund, which Argo naturally refused. It was dumb, mostly because I didn't want a name, besides my own. But I suppose I asked for it, making those flashy attacks for everyone to see.

Majiku loved it.

"I personally like Crimson Cannon, makes me sound badass," He would say.

"It makes us sound like something that belongs in a fourth of July celebration." I groaned.

"God bless America to have me as their cannon."

"Shut up."

With the names came a mix of amazement and resentment among the players.

"Oh man, it's them!" Some would say, waving like we were celebrities.

Some would scoff and say, "Ugh, it's the showoffs," which earned them a glare from either me or Majiku, if not both.

We had another reputation that I enjoyed a little more. One time a tough group of people ambushed us outside of the towns safe zone.

"We gonna knock you both down a few pegs. And prove that what happened on 3 was all a lie," A stocky dude said.

"Yea, we gonna show everyone that you are all just show, and prove that that bitch Argo is a lying cheat," Another said.

We weren't sure what their motives were. But them talking about Argo like that was pissing me off. I stepped forward but Majiku reined me in.

Me and Maj stood back to back, not even drawing our swords.

"What's the matter? To afraid to actually fight real players?" The stocky dude said.

Maj looked at him and smiled. "Nah brah, I just don't want to hurt delicate flowers such as yourselves." I smacked him in the back of the head.

Apparently that was enough to make them all rush us. There were about 5 of them. I jumped as high as I could, while Maj drew his sword and slashed in a wide arc all the way around him.

It knocked all 5 of them down, but didn't kill. I zeroed in on the stocky one as being the leader in all of this. I looked down at Maj and he seemed to figure the same thing.

He raised his sword above him. I used it as a springboard and launched myself at the leader. I landed right next to him and shoved my blade next to his throat.

"Call your boys off. I really don't what to have to hurt you or them," I said in the deepest tone I could manage.

He got the hint and squirmed out from under my sword. He waved for his men to follow him and they sped away.

"Well, that will probably help our image," I said as I sheathed my sword.

"Yea well, maybe people will think twice about trying to fight us." Maj said walking up next to me. Turns out it did help our image. In more better ways than I thought. People would ask us for tips and tricks. A few people wanted lessons, which we humbly declined. I wasn't a great teacher.

I made the mistake of telling Argo and she went and posted it in her next newspaper issue.

"Why didn't you get me a screenshot?" She complained.

"I'm sorry!" I said sarcastically. "I was too busy KICKING ASS!"

"As if 'Blue Smear'! You couldn't kick a kindergarteners ass!"

"Why would I want to kick a kindergarteners ass?" Maj stepped between us trying way too hard not to laugh.

"Easy you too. You aren't at the arguing stage of the relationship yet." He made both of us trip over our words and turn about 10 different shades.

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT, ASS!" We both shouted simultaneously.

I facepalmed myself and Argo hid under her hood. This was enough to make him crack up.

After that people either gave us a wide berth, or praised us. We kept on getting stronger, trying to clear the game as fast as we could... Which was agonizingly slow.

The front was on floor 55 now. Kirito had made a reputation of being the horrible Beater, also known as the "Black Swordsman". His rep was basically ours. It's a love hate sort of deal.

As for the girl who I didn't have much faith in, Asuna. Well she floored me. She became the second in command of a pretty tough front-line guild. She came up to me once. I thought she was gonna actually properly introduce herself. Not quite. She was trying to recruit Majiku and myself into the 'Knights of the Blood Oath'. Needless to say, we declined.

That was it, she said, "OK," and left. Quite the riveting conversation.

So we went on, hunting into the late hours of the night to make up for lost time.

1

After killing the 50th lizard man and advancing to level 70 we decided to call it for the day.

Majiku stretched and yawned. "Jezz I'm tired. How long have we been at this now?"

"Think this is day 4 now of camping out," I said. As soon as I said it out loud, my eyes got heavy. "We should head back. I think after this we made up for being off of the front for half a month."

"Good, I'm getting sick of this grind."

We fist bumped and headed back to town. As we walked back we talked about the future. We were over halfway through Aincrad. But it took us nearly 2 years to do it. Did that mean we were gonna be here for 2 more years?

"Man I hope not. I'm gonna have the worst bed sore when we get back." As soon as he said it a heavy cloud washed over both of us. We talked about it before and decided to not think about it, but that became harder with each passing month. How were our real bodies doing? There was no way they would last another 2 years being kept alive by life support.

"On a lighter note." I said trying to change the subject. "Agil and Liz both set up permanent shops, Liz in Lindarth on 48, and Agil in Algade on 50."

"Yea I heard. We should stop by. Besides, we have drops to sell, and I don't know about you, but my blade needs sharpened." Maj said.

So it was agreed. Tomorrow we would rest. Then the next day we would head out to visit Agil and Liz.

As we walked I was thinking about my friends that were here. Austin and Peyton. How they dived in to help. It was only with their help that Liz and Agil were able to make enough to get their shops.

Peytons smithing skill had gotten high enough were she and Liz took shifts tending to the shop, so they could each rest. While Austin's appraisal skill was about on level with Agils. This let Agil participate in boss fights more, which helped move the front faster. He was a crazy good ax user.

But all this still had me thinking. Sure there weren't a lot of American players in SAO. But my entire circle of friends were gamers. Was there a chance that someone else I knew was playing?

I pushed that thought out. There was no way.

After Austin and Peyton came I was to the monolith in Black Iron Palace on the first floor. On the monolith listed every player in SAO, living or dead. I scanned that thing 5 times, and didn't recognize any of my friends real names, or recognize any screen names that they used.

I was so lost in thought that I didn't notice we made it back the the inn we were staying at. I walked into the door and noticed someone familiar sitting at one of the tables.

"Argo?"

She turned and lowered her hood.

"Hey there, 'Cannon Bros'" She said. "Care to have a drink with me?" She pulled up a patted a spot next to her. Before I could speak, Maj said.

"We would love too. Especially for our favorite info broker."

I was skeptical. A meeting with Argo normally ended with us being out about 1000 Col each. But we sat and ordered some drinks. Without thinking about it I ordered Argos favorite slice of cake. Cause it had became routine that she would beg for cake whenever we hung out.

Maj looked at me and sneered. "Ah, buying your girl her favorite cake? That's sweet."

I planted my foot firmly in his shin. Normally Argo would too. But this time, she just blushed.

What was up with her? She didn't say much, and was keeping to herself. Which was unlike her... Not that I would know. The waiter brought our drinks and Argos cake. This gave her a distraction and she dug in.

"So, I got a couple of hot tips for you," She said between her bites.

"I knew it. How much this time?" I asked. She frowned and set her fork down. She got a sunken look in her eyes like she was scared. I set my hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"I got a tip on another group of PKers, only these guys are slimy," She said, shuddering at the work 'PKers'.

I don't think any of us had gotten over what happened on Floor 3. But we also never talked about it.

"Word is they like to monster PK. Kite a bunch of high level monsters and bring them down on an unsuspecting group. When the business is done they clean up whatever gets dropped." When she finished I was concerned.

She looked like she was about to cry.

"Argo, did something-" I was cut short when I looked over Argo and saw a group of guys staring at us. "We should take this upstairs."

"Falstor, dude, now is not the time to be bustin mo-" I cut Maj off and motioned to the dudes behind Argo. His eyes got wide. "Yea. OK, your room, let's go."

I put my arm around Argo to keep her from meeting the groups gaze and lead her to my room, Majiku walking between me and her, and them.

We got up to my room. Which was set up like a living room, with a bed at the end. Two couches, both facing each other. A table sat in the middle of the couches and a chair sat at the head of the table.

As I ushered Argo to the chair, Majiku checked the hallway to make sure we weren't followed.

He shut the door and locked it. I sat Argo down, then sat on the couch as close to the edge, and her, as I could.

"Argo, did those guys follow you? What happened?" I asked, ready to go down and beat the snot out of them.

"It's worse than that, Falstor," She said. Letting some of the tears she was holding back out. "That's them. That group is the group of PKers."

I got up and kneeled next to the chair, placing my hand over Argos hand. Majiku was leaning on the door. I looked at him.

"Watch the hall. Make sure they don't come up and try to listen in." I said, he nodded and walked out. "Argo, start from the beginning, what happened?"

"Well, I was out with a party here on 55. I was following a quest for the info. The party was nice. So I figured it would be ok." She took a deep breath. "And it was, they were all good, strong people. They let me tag along and I offered to pay them for helping me get info." Another set of tears streamed from her eyes. It infuriated me, but I forced myself to remain calm.

"Ok, so what happened?" I asked.

"We were heading back, careful to avoid the cemetery with high level skeleton mobs."

"The one that needs a raid to get through?" Judging by her expression I had nailed it. Me and Maj ventured in there. We handled the skeletons ok, but if you aggroed more than one at a time you were a goner.

"Yeah, we had gotten past it fine, but somehow we attracted a whole group of the skeletons, maybe 4 or 5 of them. At least I thought it was us." The story was becoming clearer.

"It was them. They tried to monsterPK you?" I said, the rage slipping into my voice.

"Yea, I noticed some of them hiding in the bushes when the skeletons surrounded us. The leader of the party gave me the info on the quest he had, and told me to run. I said no but he wouldn't have it. So I did. As I did the PKers chased me." I put my hand on her shoulder to try to calm her down.

"So they chased you all the way to town?"

"Yup, I came here because it was a safe zone. And because yo-" She cut her thought short. I didn't pry. "I thought they would leave. But they just sat down and waited for me to leave. That was about an hour before you two came in." She finished. Letting out a sigh like she just dropped 100 pounds off her shoulders. When she finished we just sat in silence.

I couldn't hold my anger in anymore.

"Right. So, I'm gonna go kick their ass." I started to rise.

Argo shot and grabbed my wrists. Meeting my eyes. I hadn't realized but I didn't see them at all today until now. They were puffy and full of sheer terror.

"No. Not now. They looked like they could be on par with you and Maj, I doubt you could

take them."

"Thanks for the confidence," I said, trying to sound calm and nice.

"Sorry. I just don't want to see you-I mean both of you get hurt, or worse." I realized what she was getting at.

"OK. No maiming, but we have to get you out of here." I thought of what to do. "Do you know if they leave this floor?"

"I doubt it, they have their system well oiled. They won't leave until they are called out on it." She said, calming down.

"And we can't just call them on it, we need some proof," I said. "Ok." I got up and walked to the door and knocked. "Maj, get in here." The door opened and he stepped through. He looked at Argo, who looked completely shot.

"What's going on then?" He asked, walking to Argo. "Are you ok?"

"I'll be fine, just a crappy day." She said.

"We have to get her to Agils shop. Those guys down there are the PKers." I could tell Maj was getting pissed. He looked at Argo, then me. After a moment he motioned his hand to Argo.

"Did they try to?" He didn't need to finish. Our faces must have said it all.

Luckily he was slightly more level headed about it than I was.

"OK. We leave now. I'll let Agil know we are coming and to have that room above his shop ready, and to watch for anything weird." I walked to Argo and offered my hand. She took it and got up, but didn't let go. I walked up next to Maj and said.

"Alright. Let's get the hell out of here before I go postal on them."

We walked out of the room into the hallway.

2

When we got out to the hall I half expected at least one of them to be there. But to my surprise, it was empty.

As we walked downstairs we situated ourselves so Majiku walked in front, Argo and myself right behind him. Even though we were in a safe zone, we didn't want to take a chance. When we got to the Inn lobby we spotted the group of guys, 5 of them, still sitting at their table.

When she saw them, Argo grabbed my arm and buried her head into my back so she couldn't see. I had never seen her this scared before, even when someone had a knife to her throat. Seeing her like this made my blood boil. As we walked out, they tried to stare at Argo, through me. I shot them a look and conveyed.

"Follow us, I dare you."

They must have caught on because they turned and faced forward.

We walked out and turned to the center of town, walking as fast as we could. Argo had picked her head up, but still clung to my arm, like she still felt like she was being watched.

Sadly, I had the same feeling. As we walked by I saw a familiar face. A girl with long chestnut hair. Wearing a white top, with a red skirt. A silver rapier hung at her waist.

Asuna.

Normally I would just ignore her, but this was important. I tapped Majikus back and pointed to her.

"You really think she will help?" He asked.

I was equally as torn. The last time we talked was at a boss meeting, and it was only to discuss strategy, no other small talk. It was almost like she hated us.

But I figured it wouldn't kill to ask.

As we approached her I looked back. Sure enough the group had changed their minds and were following a ways back. I looked forward. She had to be in earshot by now.

"Asuna!" I said, quick but loud.

She looked over and saw me and Maj. Her face turned into a scowl, like our very presence annoyed her.

But then I stepped to the right far enough for her to see Argo clutched to me, and her face softened to concern. I motioned her to follow as subtle as I could. She obliged and fell in next to Argo.

"What happened? What's going on?" Her voice was stern, but soft to accommodate Argo.

"PKers. We need to get her off of the floor. We're being followed." She looked back to see the guys tailing us. '"Just walk with us, make yourself noticeable. They may back off with all three of us in one place." She nodded her head and walked as tall as she could.

I looked back. They must have recognized Asuna, and in turn, recognized us after putting two and two together. I saw one mutter, "Flash" to the lead guy, another mouthed, "Cannon". They stopped, but didn't take their eyes off of us.

For once, I was glad I had a nickname. We finally got to the center of town where the teleport plaza was. I turned and faced Asuna.

"Thanks, I owe you one." She put her hands on her hips.

"You owe me an explanation, why are you hanging out with him?" I realized she wasn't talking to me, but to Argo. If she wasn't in sheer panic mode, she might have stammered.

"Later, OK Asuna? We will explain fully, for now I need you and anyone you can get together." I said.

"Awfully bold. Asking me for a favor directly," She said. The whole 'second in command' thing has kinda gotten to her head a bit.

"This is important. You know the cemetery with the high level skeletons?" Majiku spoke up. I hadn't noticed that he was to my right.

"Yea, what about it?" She asked.

"We need you to keep people away from it. Far away. Those guys are monster PKers. They are kiting the skeletons out of the cemetery to kill players who get near," I explained. She looked skeptical at first, but then started putting the pieces together.

"Argo.. Did they?" Argo nodded laying her head back on me. "Got it. I'll round up some of the guild and see what we can do. Take care of her."

With that, my first meaningful conversation with Asuna was over. She walked to the gate and commanded "Teleport: Granzam." She was going to the Knights new headquarters here on Floor 55.

"Well we picked the right backup huh?" Maj asked. I nodded and led Argo onto the Teleport gate.

"Algade, Ok Argo?" She nodded.

We all commanded, "Teleport: Algade."

Only when we were sure we weren't followed did Argo finally raise her head from my arm.

"Thank you." She said weakly. She looked exhausted. I tried to lighten the mood as we walked.

"When was the last time you slept, girl?" She looked at me and managed a weak smile.

"3 and a half... Days ago."

Almost on cue she started to fall.

"Argo!" I reached out and caught her before she hit the ground. .

When I turned her face so I could see it. What I saw I couldn't believe. She was freakin' asleep.

"Woman, I am gonna give you a piece of my mind when you wake up," I groaned. Maj help secure her on my back and we continued to walk to Agils shop.

When we got there, a sign was on the door.

Closed for Special Event.

Agil normally used this sign when there was a boss fight to be won. But he hasn't used it since Austin started helping him.

We opened the front door and Austin was standing behind a counter cleaning up under it.

"Austin! Whats up man?" Maj asked walking over to shake his hand. Austin leaned up and smiled, not noticing the passed out Argo on my back.

"Hey guys! Agil told me you would be stopping by. He said you needed the room upstairs for something?" I turned to show him Argo on my back. "Oh." Then he smiled like he busted me.

"Don't..." I said way more harshly than I meant to. Austin looked somewhat hurt. "Sorry, long day. She's had a worse day." He lightened up and said.

"Right. This way." He led us to the stairs to the room Agil had above his shop. It had a bed, but he never used it.

As I got into the room Austin helped me get Argo from my back, onto the bed. I carefully laid her head down, then sat down on the bed in front of her. Austin and Maj sat on the floor in front me.

"So what's the story man?" Austin asked. I was worried to say anything.

"Brace yourself, it isn't pretty," Maj said.

"PKers tried to kill Argo." I said flatly. The anger rising in me again.

Austin turned pale, no doubt remembering his own encounter with PKers.

Majiku filled him in while I looked down at Argo. She was breathing steadily and looked really peaceful. I set my hand on her head and she smiled sleepily. When Majiku finished up Austin was mortified.

"So that's why she's wiped? Damn that's insane. I'm glad I stayed down here," He said. Crossing his arms. "So what's your plan?"

I made sure she was still asleep. I couldn't tell if she was faking it but I just hoped. "We are going back to 55."

"She will kill you and you know it," Maj said.

"I know. But we have to keep anymore people from getting hurt," I said.

"We already have Asuna on it man, let her handle it while you stay with her."

"I know... I just want to bust them myself. For her."

Maj didn't have a comeback from that. We sat in silence except for Argos breathing. She had a slight snore, which I thought was kinda cute... Wait what?

I shook my head and looked at Austin.

"Did Agil leave the corridor crystal?" I asked.

"Oh yea, it's down behind the counter," He said.

"Good, did he give a price?"

"He said for now the price is a full explanation." Austin said.

Agil was a good guy, he knew when to charge and when to let it slide a bit. Still I pulled out 500 Col.

"Give this to him anyway. Just in case." I looked at Maj and he nodded.

"This is huge. If we get mixed up with the players and the monsters there may not be an out."

With that I got up from the bed.

"We should go, before she wakes up. Austin, let her sleep for a while yea? If she asks, tell her I'll be right back. Make something up." Austin gave me a concerned look.

"You know she won't believe anything I say," He said.

"Do not let her leave here. They know her face, they will be hunting for her. Swear it man." I demanded. He contemplated for a minute and smiled.

"I'll take her to visit Peyton and Liz while you are gone. Get her mind off of it."

"Good. do that." I said, turning to Maj. 'Come on bro, we have heads to smash." He smiled, got up, and placed his massive sword on his back. I turned to look at Argo, still passed out. I put my hand on her head

"We will be back. Sleep well." She didn't respond.

3

We returned to 55 to find someone unexpected waiting for us. Kirito, standing with Asuna and a 5 other members of the KoB. I expected Asuna and the guild. But what was Kirito doing here? I walked up and shook his hand.

"Long time no see, bud." I said.

"Likewise," He said, shaking Majikus hand after mine. "Asuna told me you were being tailed by PKers. Let's talk quick."

The KoB members stood guard to ensure we weren't being watched or eavesdropped on. While we sat we filled them both in on the full situation. After we finished they both look pissed.

"Damnit, Argo," Kirito muttered.

"It must have been terrifying." She looked at me. "I owe you an apology. I treated you two so badly when you were protecting her. Sorry." She seemed to be in a lighter mood when Kirito was around.

"It's ok. I didn't give you much to go on when we met up," I said.

"I'm sure Flastor was glad to have someone like you sticking up for Argo." Maj said looking at me out of the corner of his eyes.

Asuna looked confused, then realized the hint, and laughed... Wait...

Asuna, the Lightning Flash is laughing?

I wasn't sure if it was reliving, or scary. I turned to Kirito and he was smiling too.

"She does talk about you quite a bit when we hang out," Asuna said to me. I looked at her confused.

Kirito nodded in agreement.

"Oh come on, you too?" I asked him.

"Yup. Anytime I ask for info on any powerful players you are always top of her list," He said. I was sure I was blushing now.

"Geez. Anyway back to the problem," I said.

"Oh yea, sorry. Well we got a tip that the group left town about 10 minutes ago," Asuna explained.

"I was able to scout them a bit," Krito chimed in. "Their gear isn't much, between the 4 of us we could easily subdue them. The problem is their Aggro rate. As they were walking they attracted the attention of every monster in a 50 yard range. So they must have a ton of health to take that kind of beating. And a ridiculously high hide skill to lose that Aggro all at once."

"So that's why I brought the toughest tanks from the guild. They will be able to draw any monsters away while we handle the players," Asuna finished.

"That's cute, you two finishing each other's thoughts," I said, getting my revenge.

"IT'S NOT LIKE THAT!" They said in unison. Asuna's face went as red as her skirt and Kirito stammered.

So that's what me and Argo sounded like... Crap.

Maj seized the moment.

"Sound familiar bro?" He couldn't help it, he cracked up. I laid my head on the table while Asuna and Kirito tripped over their words and Majiku laughed. Then a thought occurred.

"Wait... We gotta go! They would have gotten to the cemetery by now," I said.

Everyone realized the situation. Asuna stood up.

"Right, let's go. Knights!" She put on her commander face.

The 5 knights all fell in.

"You've been briefed on the situation. If you pull this off, I will personally see to it that you are all in the rotation for the next boss fight," Asuna said, trying to fire them up.

They looked over Kirito, Majiku and myself with disgust.

"With all due respect ma'am, why do we need these weak-" I didn't give him a chance to finish. I dashed next to him and put my hand on his shoulder.

"What was that?" I said in a sinister tone. Letting some of the anger out that had been boiling inside all day. I could feel him shaking in his armor.

"No-Nothing sir. Happy to have you along." He said. Kirito grabbed my shoulder to calm me down. I must have looked a lot worse than I meant to.

Asuna took the moment to regain control.

"Right, they are here because they tipped us off, and have a personal attachment to this case." I wasn't a fan of how she used 'personal'. "While we are in the field you are to take their orders as if they are my own. It might save your life." She finished. "Now, lets move out." The 5 men saluted Asuna

"Yes, ma'am!" They all said in unison. They fell in behind the four of us as we made our way outside of town.

As we walked people parted ways for us. I thought it was just for Asuna and the Knights. But their gaze was to the four of us. Me, Maj, Kirito, and Asuna.

Then it hit me. To them, the 4 most powerful players in the game were all in one place. Everyone had a worried look like something bad had happened. The matter was fully driven in with Kirito actually being with a group larger than... Well, himself.

It felt weird getting all of the attention, but at the same time I brushed it off and focused on the task. We were about to go into some dangerous fights. As we walked through the town the knights kept a wary eye on Asuna and the alleys that came up. Good to know that they didn't care about the 3 of us.

Soon we were far out of town way out of town close to the cemetery.

As we got closer I couldn't shake the feeling that something was really wrong. Then my detection skill went off. Judging from the looks Kirito and Maj had, they had their detection skill on max too. I opened my map and noticed one icon on the edge of the map. A player, running towards us.

"Get ready!" Kirito shouted. We all drew our blades. Me, Majiku standing shoulder to shoulder, Kirito and Asuna standing back to back, facing where the cursor was going to come.

I watched my map and soon there were 4 red dots behind the player. It had to be the skeletons, but why only one player cursor?

As it hit me the player came into view over the hill in front of us. A girl, wearing a purple and white tunic that came down to her knees, and black leather pants, came dashing over the hill, screaming.

"Go! She's a victim!" I said. We all dashed so fast the 5 Knights were left in the dust. As the four of us got closer I noticed she had purple hair too, and looked slightly familiar.

"Jesus, HELP ME!" She yelled, seeing us.

Then the skeletons from the cemetery crested the hill, maybe 10 feet behind her. I counted, 5, no more than that. The PKers had to be close, but they didn't show on my map. I closed the screen and ran, the others did the same.

I shouted to the girl. "HIT THE DECK!"

I was happy she caught on. She got to her knees and got as low as she could. Maj held his sword behind us. It was long enough for all 3 of us to use as a step off. Me, Kirito, and Asuna jumped and planted our feet on his sword. Maj yelled and swung his sword as hard as he could, send us flying to the skeletons. Asuna stopped short to cover the girl while Kirito and I advanced.

We had both learned a new skill that he helped me perfect. Horizontal Square. It was perfect for this kind of scenario with a group of monsters and needed to keep moving.

We both approached the first two skeletons and activated it. I stepped to the right and slashed the skeleton, the system took over and spun me, though I added my own speed to it.

After I had spun a complete 270 I was lined up to strike again. I repeated this until I was in front of the skeleton again, leaving a trail in the shape of a square extending from the center.

Kirito also completed the skill a second before me.

"Good to see you haven't lost your touch," I said, smiling.

"You too! Let's take these Bastards!" Kirito said.

Majiku had appeared to my right, smiling like a madman.

"That was sweet looking you two!" He said. "Now it's my turn."

There were 3 left. I knew his plan. I turned and shouted over my shoulder.

"Asuna! Advance!"

She understood, she had seen me and Maj pull off this move with the adds in boss fights all the time. Me and Kirito stepped back so we could get a running start and Maj stood in the center of the 3 advancing skeletons.

"You want some Crimson? I'll give you Crimson!" He shouted.

He activated the skill, Cyclone. Which basically spun him in place while he hit. But he did it twice as fast, hitting all 3 skeletons and knocking them back. When his spin was finished, he was facing us.

As soon as Majikus skill dissipated Asuna had gotten even with us. All three of us dashed to a skeleton. We all jumped over Maj, Kirito and Asuna using his shoulders to jump off of, and me, using his sword. We all shouted defiantly and drove our swords into the skeletons.

I was worried it wasn't enough. But the three shimmered and disappeared in a mist of crystals. I wished Argo was here. That would have made a killer shot for her next paper. Then I remembered what was going on. I did a 360 looking for the group. I didn't see anything. I knelt to the ground and punched.

"Damn it, they must have gotten away," I said.

"Not quite young man." Said a low male voice.

I turned. The knights had caught up. Somehow in tow, they had the 5 guys from the inn.

"We caught them trying to sneak back to town around you. Sorry to disobey orders ma'am," he said, turning to Asuna.

"Are you kidding? Good work you guys!" She said. Then she remembered who she was talking to. "I mean.. Nice work men."

"I have a corridor crystal for the prison." I said, fishing it out of my belt pouch.

I held it up and gave the command, "Corridor: Open".

The crystal disappeared and a doorway appeared between us and the PKers. The knights ushered them through. As soon as the corridor closed I let out a breath I was keeping in.

Then I remembered the girl. I looked around the Knights and she was standing behind them. I finally got a good look at her and nearly screamed.

I knew I recognized her from somewhere. From the real world, it's just been so long I had to see her front and center. The name over her head read 'Willow'. I approached her, not realizing I was staring.

"Um... Do I know you?" I said, not really sure what else to say. Her gaze was downcast, as she was fiddling with the Scimitar strapped to her waist. Finally she looked up, and it sealed it.

"It's Sky" She said.

4

It took Majiku elbowing me to snap out of it.

"I'm telling Argo," He teased.

I punched him as hard as I could in his gut.

I inspected Sky, trying to convince myself that I was seeing things.

"Seriously? Sky? From work?" Was all I could manage.

She looked up like she was ashamed.

"Yea, it's me..." She said. Looking behind me. I realized I was calling her by her real name.

"Ah, Jesus. Sorry Sk-Willow." I corrected. "Let's get you back to town." I said, turning to the others.

All 3 of them were eyeing me like I was a horrible person.

Then it hit me. "Oh for the love of. I know her IRL, I worked it her, and she has a boyfriend. Happy now?" They all lightened up and laughed.

"Uh, did I miss something?" Willow poked her head out from behind me.

"Don't worry about them." I pointed to Asuna and Kirito to even the score. "Those two are head over heels for each other," I pointed to Maj. "And he is still looking, but failing miserably."

Kirito and Asuna started tripping over their words and Maj just looked defeated.

"Yea! Shoes on the other foot now you jerks." I turned to Willow, feeling the dagger stares I was getting from the others. "As I was saying, let's go." I gestured to town.

As we made our way back to town, Willow described her time here. Basically she figured out the game and was just playing to survive. Not looking to be the best, but not the weakest either, just make it back to the real world. Still with that kind of attitude and being on the front surprised me.

Most people like her stay about 2 floors below the front lines, where all information was available somewhere. And her weapon looked a little worse for wear. It was just one of the stock swords you could buy in the NPC stores in the towns.

But she still must be doing ok to survive the front... Barring the skeletons. They don't count.

We made it back to town without any trouble. When we got there we said goodbye to Asuna and her Knights. They had to go take care of preparations for the next boss in 5 days.

"By the way, will we see you two there?" She directed the question to me and Maj. I looked at him and he shrugged.

"I'll shoot Kirito a message in a couple of days to let you know." I gestured to Willow. "Between her, and watching over Argo, I couldn't say for sure." Willow shot me a death glare. Like I offended her.

"If I am such a bother then you can just forget about it. I've survived without you for this long, haven't I?" I held my hands up in surrender.

"Sorry! Sorry! That came out wrong." I couldn't form a good recovery. Maj saved the day.

"What he means is we want to help you get stronger. so you won't have to run from anything anymore." Her expression softened. She crossed her arms and looked away.

"Fine." With that I turned to Kirito, who was looking at me like 'good luck with that'. I knew Willow didn't mean anything by it. But to someone outside, it probably looked like she hated me.

We all parted ways, Asuna and her Knights to Granzam, Kirito to... Wherever he went. When they were gone I turned to Willow.

"First thing. Let me see your sword." She unsheathed her scimitar. It was small, with brown leather crudely wrapped on the handle. One look and I couldn't figure out how she lasted this long.

"What's wrong? It's good isn't it? It was the most expensive one on this floor." Willow said defensively. I took the best sword on the floor and broke it in two without trying.

Willow's eyes got wide with anger. "What the hell, man! You gonna pay for that?" She started to slap me, but I grabbed her wrist.

"First, if I could break it that easy, you didn't take care of it. What if it broke when you were fighting?" I explained. She was still pissed.

"Second, I'll do better than pay for it. We will get you a new one that wipes the floor with that one." This caused her to calm down a bit. "Third, chill out, you're causing a scene." I let go of her wrist. She still slapped me.

Maj looked at me, annoyed.

"You still kinda deserve that man. Why are you being a jerk if you know her IRL?" He asked. I hadn't noticed it, but he was right. I felt the same way when I found out Austin and Peyton were here. I looked at Willow, and sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry, ok? I was just hoping that I wouldn't find anyone else that I know here." She finally looked sincere. "Why didn't you come find me? We could have help you sooner." I said. She looked at me, half sad, half irritated.

"I didn't want to. I wanted to prove that I could last on my own. I guess I was wrong." She looked defeated.

"What do you mean? The fact that you are up here and out in the field is enough. You are doing well. Just let us help you do better." Maj said She looked at him and finally smiled.

"So I assume you two have a plan? She asked. I smiled back.

"Even better, I have an expert blacksmith, and a professional shopkeeper."

We got to Lindarth and made our way to Liz's shop. While I did I quizzed Willow. Like I assumed, she was proficient in her sword skills and her armor was spot on. But she lacked when it came to weapons and weapon upgrades.

So it was good that we would only need to visit Liz before training her. We got to Lizs shop and I had to stop and stare. It was a beautiful building made of stone. A water wheel turned slowly on the side. Maj tapped my shoulder and I snapped out of it.

"Man, that is awesome!" I said.

"I have to agree, she must be doing great," Maj said.

We walked into the door and I was greeted with a hammer to the face.

"Where the hell have you been?" Liz asked, her fists on her hips. "We have been open her for almost a week and you just now pop in? What took you so long?"

"Hey, Flastor! Hi, Majiku! Liz come on. Seriously you can't just hammer people in front of customers, even if they are friends." She turned to Willow. "Hi, welcome to Lizbeths Blacksmith Shop! I'm Peyton, the one with the pink hair is the smith, Liz." Willow looked nervous.

"Uh.. Hi. You don't uh. Always hammer your customers.. right?"

"That is reserved for, jerks who don't visit their favorite smith when she opens her permanent shop." She said as she smacked Maj with her hammer. "Ok, I'm good now. What can I do for you all today?" Classic Liz, fired up one second, sweet and innocent the next.

"Well my friend here, needs a new scimitar. Don't worry about the cost, just make the best you can. Put it on my tab." I said. LIz turned and looked at Willow, who wouldn't meet her gaze.

"Right! Come with me Willow! We have work to do." She ushered Willow to the back of the shop, where the smith was. Before she disappeared through the door she looked back like she was saying help.

"Dont worry, shes gonna make you a kick ass sword that'll dwarf the ones of the Front." I said waving at her. They disappeared into the smith. Peyton turned to me and gave me the same look that Majiku and the others did outside of town on 55. I rolled my eyes, but Maj helped me out.

"Knows her IRL, co-workers, she's taken. We've already been over it." He said chuckling

"Oh, got it. Hey speaking of that Argo came by. She was looking for you" Peyton said. "She looked pissed." Panic filled my body.

"What did you tell her?" I asked.

"Um, the truth, we haven't seen you in forever. Why? Did you two have a fight?" She asked. Maj started chuckling again.

"No, but she might kill him whenever she finds him."

"I got a bone to pick with your man." I said to Peyton. "He was supposed to keep her occupied."

"Well we told her we would message her if we saw you." I widened my eyes. That's why Liz went to the back.

"Crap." I bolted to the back and flew into the smith. By the time I got to liz she was already closing her message window. "You did not."

Liz gave me a wicked smile. "Oh I did. Look a reply. 'Don't let him leave'." She typed a reply. "'No problem girl, come get him' Argos a coming to kill you and I'm gonna laugh."

"Who's Argo?" Willow asked.

"Well now she's death incarnate for me." I said hanging my head. "So did you actually get work done troublemaker?" I asked Liz. She flashed me a wicked smile.

"I was about to make her the best scimitar! Care to watch?" She asked.

"Why not, since I'm about to die." I said. Maj and Peyton had appeared on top of the staircase. I looked at Maj. "Argo is on the way."

"Nice knowing you bro, drop your Col would you?" He said.

"Ha, Ha, very funny ass." I said.

"Shut up both of you, I gotta focus, Pey come give me a hand." Liz said.

"Coming!" Peyton said, jumping from the top of the stairs. I watched, mesmerized, as Peyton and Liz worked. Liz would form the sword, while Peyton handed more ores for her to use. After about a minute or so the shape on the anvil formed into a shining curved sword, with purple and white leather cords wrapping the handle, and a polished silver blade and guard.

"Alright, let's take a look." She opened the item window. "Looks like it's called, MoonStruck Sabre. Pretty gnarly sword. Should do you fine Willow." Liz handed the sword to Willow while Peyton constructed a sheath. Willow took it and inspected it. The she spoke up.

"Its beautiful, thank you Liz!" She said.

"Now that you have it let's take it for a spin, eh?" She turned to me and smiled.

"Hell yea! Let's do this." She said. Me and Maj walked out to the plain in front of Lizs shop. "So where we going? What monster are we gonna fight?" She asked. I pointed to Maj.

"That, is the monster you are gonna fight. If you can break his defense, then you can beat anything." I said. She looked nervous. But then straightened her back. Maj smiled and drew his blade.

"Alright, let's go-" Willows taunt was cut off by a yell... A yell that I knew all too well.

"FFFLLLAAASSTTOORR!"

5

Something to note. A punch from Argo, running at full speed, takes me down to half health. Who knew? Well... My face does now.

Agro was running so fast I had no chance of dodging. She planted her fist in my right cheek so hard I think my body in the real world bruised.

"What in the actual hell? Do you realize how worried I was?" She was firing off insults and rants while pounding on my chest. I glanced over and Majiku was literally on the ground laughing so hard, and Willow, trying to be nice, was trying hard not to smile, but failing miserably.

"You didn't reply. Majiku didn't reply." This turned her attention to Maj as she hucked the nearest rock at his head. "I THOUGHT YO-, I THOUGHT BOTH OF YOU WERE DEAD!" She shouted.

I hadn't noticed, but I did have about 5 unread messages, starting around the time that we beat the skeletons. Maj must have noticed this too, because his laughter was replaced with a wave of grief.

I embraced her to try to calm her down. She squirmed because she couldn't hit me. But she didn't try to escape, even though I knew she could easily.

"Sorry." It was that one word from me that calmed her down. "We took care of those PKers." With this the tension in her body left. I was worried to say anything else. Finally she looked up. Her face that was contorted with anger, got replaced with a face of relief. She buried her head back in my chest and said.

"Just don't do anything that stupid again, alright? At least, not without me there to slap you afterwards." I patted the top of her head.

"You have my word, next stupid stunt, you will be there to either scold me, or laugh at me." I said. I was fully convinced that she had calmed down, so I let her go. She took a step back, then turned to Maj.

"You ain't off the hook either pal, I oughta slap the piss out'ta you too." She said, her hands on her hips. Then she she saw Willow for the first time. Argos face flushed. "Who's she?" She asked, suddenly on guard.

"She's uh... A friend of mine." I said, I really didn't want to say I knew her IRL, since it wasn't polite to talk about it in game. I clearly choose my words poorly because Argo turned to me, the anger returning in her eyes.

"A 'friend' huh?" She turned in a huff. I realized she was pouting from jealousy.

"Oh for the love of," I started to complain.

"Tell her." Willow said. I turned to her. "As long as it stays with us, I don't care if you and your friends know me." I nodded in thanks. I brought my attention back to the pouting Argo.

"Argo, she's a co-worker from the real world. She was almost a victim of those PKers before we got there." I could tell I struck a sympathy cord with her, but she still had her back to me. "I brought her here to get a new sword after hers.. Ah"

"After he shattered it." Willow spoke up.

"Yea... That. Anyway we were gonna help her train, so she could join the front-lines." She turned her head to Willow. Still annoyed. Then I realized I left a base uncovered. "For crying out loud, she has a boyfriend waiting for her." That did it. Just not the thing I was hoping, instead of defusing it, Argo turned and smiled.

"Why would that be important, Boy?" She asked. I hesitated, sure may face was the same shade as the sunset sky. I walked right into that one. But I also saw my chance.

"Why would that make you talk to me again?" I said, smiling back. Before she hid her face under her hood, I saw her face turn red.

"I.. Uh... Nothing." She said. She recovered and regarded Willow officially. "Sorry for all of this. Hi! I'm Argo, Info Broker extraordinaire." I turned my back to her because my mouth moved on it's own.

"And a major pain in my ass." I said, trying to hide it.

"What did you say?" I cursed her good hearing. She ran and jumped on my back, latching her legs around my waist, lightly but repeatedly hitting the top of my head.

"Nothing, nothing, sheesh. I take it you slept well?" I asked. She jumped off my back and twirled.

"Yup, best sleep in a while. At least for awhile. Then my dreams changed to nightmares." She shot me a dirty look like it was my fault. She turned to Willow. "So what's on the training agenda?"

"Well, I gave her the task of breaking Majikus defense. Told her if she did that, then she could take anything." I explained. Maj raised his sword onto his shoulder.

"Stop you guys, you will make me blush this time." He chuckled. "Anyway, Willow, Are you ready? I won't go easy on you." Willow smiled defiantly and readied her sword.

"Good, I would stink to pulverize you without a fight." She said. With that, Majku smiled and readied her sword.

"She has no idea what she got herself into" Argo said silently to me.

"Yea, no kidding." I sat down and leaned on a nearby tree. Suddenly I felt like I aged a few months all at once. I leaned back and closed my eyes. Before I drifted to sleep, I felt a pressure on my shoulder, in the shape of a head.

6

After about an hour and a half I woke to someone shaking my shoulder softy. When I opened my eyes, Peyton was kneeling next to me, Austin standing next to her. I went to stretch but Peyton stopped me.

"Careful, you're being used." She said, motioning to my other shoulder. Sure enough when I looked, Argo had situated herself to lean on my shoulder and slee. She must have lied when she said she got enough sleep.

I looked up and Austin was smiling, not even in a joking matter. Behind him, the sky blazed orange as the sun dipped below the horizon. Also behind him I heard the ring of swords. Willow must still be going at it with Maj. Around me was Liz, Austin, and Peyton, all staring down at me, smiling.

"We decided not to wake you two, you looked awfully comfortable." Liz said. "Are ya hungry? We brought some sandwiches from town for everyone."

"Charitable today aren't we?" I chided, knowing she couldn't hit me without waking Argo. Instead of insulting me, or saying something witty, she smiled.

"You all have had a long day. Figured you would be hungry." My stomach growled like it heard her.

"You aren't wrong. Let's get Maj and Willow and eat." I said, I turned my head to look at Argo. I extended my finger and poked her cheek. Nothing.

"Hey, wake up." Still nothing.

"I have cake." That got her to stir, but not quite wake up. Time to take drastic measures.

"Oh Peyton, what a cute little puppy!" Argo grabbed me and buried her head into my arm.

"For the love of all things good keep it away from me!" She squealed. When there was nothing she leaned up.

"Morning sleepy head." I said. She looked around in a panic.

"Where's the mongrel? Keep it away from me!" She said.

"Calm yourself. There's no dog, I couldn't get you to wake up so I had to do something. Liz brought us some food, you hungry?" She looked around and saw everyone. Liz and Peyton standing to the left and right of us. Austin, Majiku and Willow walking up from the field. Argo realized she was still leaning on me and shot up straight.

"I.. Uh.. It's not." She started to say.

"Don't worry about it, it's been a rough day." Peyton said, smiling at her. "Let's just all hang out for a bit and eat." With that I heard a growl come from Argos stomach, she looked down in shame.

"Sorry." She said, embarrassed.

"He already beat you to it so nothing to be sorry for. Liz said, motioning to me. I nodded to reassure her. Austin, Maj, and Willow all approached. Willow looked accomplished.

"How did she do?" I asked Maj. He smiled.

"She's definitely fast. With a bit more practice she will be mopping up the frontlines in no time." He said. Clearly impressed with her progress. She smile and regarded Maj.

"I still didn't break through his defense, but still." she stared off to the horizon. "We spared like crazy, I could feel myself getting faster. And with his guidance. It feels like I'm a completely different person than when I woke up today." She turned back and smiled. "I need to thank you, all of you. For making me ready to fight on the front lines for real."

"Don't mention it. We gotta get you back to your man." Which brought up a thought that had been nagging at me. "Hey, how did you end up here?" Peyton stopped the conversation short.

"Let's get dinner set up before we swap stories ok?" She brought out a blanket that was strapped to her back. She rolled it out and everyone sat down around it. Liz brought out some awesome looking sandwiches with some chips, and drinks to go with it. As we dug in we all exchanged the stories that we were willing to tell.

Willow had explained that her boyfriend had gotten a copy of SAO after being interviewed by Kayaba. They got the copy because Kayaba had said he wanted players that weren't exactly die hard gamers to add diversity to the world. I made a note to pound the crap out of him if I ever saw him.

But I suppose at the same time, if none of this had happened, I wouldn't have meet Liz, or Agil, or Kirito and Asuna, top of the list, I wouldn't have met Argo. I looked at Willow and she looked depressed. This may have been the first time she thought of the real world out loud. Agro elbowed me to say something. Though I wasn't sure how to word it.

So I did what I normally did when I had to cheer someone up. I improvised. I made eye contact with Willow and she looked back.

"I know that it sucks being trapped here. Being cut off from what we all had in the real world." I began. Sounding way less upbeat than I wanted to.

"But we are here, now. That much is fact. So instead of feeling like we are losing days here, we should cherish the days here. Because they are molding us to be better." I saw my way in.

"We should make the most of our time here, instead of dwelling on the real world. Because the more we think about it, the more split we will be come. And the more split we feel, the longer it will take us to get back to the real world." I realized that everyone was watching me, and I was addressing everyone.

"As long as you keep fighting, and try to live your life here, the you have my word. I will fight as hard as I can to get us out."

Maj spoke up, "We, will fight as hard as we can." I nodded at him and smiled.

"Sorry, WE, will fight as hard as we can to end this." This seemed to lighten everyone's mood. Expect for Argo, who, while smiling, had a downcast to her eyes.

I put my hand on her shoulder, she looked up at me and smiled. We all ate and shared fun stories, either in game or in the real world, while the day drew to a close. While we enjoyed the meal, we had no idea that on the front, things had taken an extremely bad turn.

END OF PART 3


	4. Aincrad 4: The Birth of a Demon

1

The front: Floor 70.

It was August.

Majiku and I were still fighting on the front lines. We were each level 90.

Willow had gone her own way after we gave her some more pointers. She was doing really well in her duels with Maj. Once she finally landed a clean blow on him we decided she was ready to get back out there. She made a vow that she would be at the next boss fight. I looked forward to seeing how she would progress now that she had the proper knowledge to run with the top players.

Argo had gone back to gathering Intel. Trying to stay out of trouble, and failing miserably. Her worst pickle is when she took a quest that required you to take care of a dog that you save from the woods. When she accepted it, the dog appeared next to her. She freaked out and started running, the dog hot on her heels.

She found us and nearly jumped onto my shoulders.

"For the love of God, save me from the hellhound!" Argo squealed, trying to get high enough away from the dog.

"Oh come on! Look at him! He's adorable!" I said, holding him up in front of her. She squirmed and shrieked.

"Bah! Get that horrible creature away from me!" She threw her arms up and jumped off of me. Argo ran as fast as she could. I tried to keep up with her, shouting dog related comments, but damn she was fast.

Other than that we weren't dealing with a lot of abnormalities. Boss fights, quests, buying cake for Argo... Oh, yea... That.

Yeah, in her words, 'It was my punishment for scaring the be-Jesus out of her when I left.' Some punishment.

Once a week I owed her a full cake of her choosing. So that was a thing. But I suppose I did ask for it. Especially after chasing her with the 'hellhound'.

Other than that, there wasn't much to tell. Majiku was still on the hunt for a girl.

"Man, it's not fair. You get Argo, Asuna and Kirito are clearly drifting together." They did spend a lot more time together now that I thought about it. He continued to rant, "And Austin and Peyton already have each other. Where's my damsel in distress?"

I patted his shoulder in fake concern. "Your pain in the ass will come," I said. "Also if you call Argo or Asuna a 'Damsel in Distress' to their face, I don't see you surviving," We worked hard, for some reason it felt like we were close to the finish.

As if her ears were burning I got a message from Argo. I opened my messages and read it.

"Heya, Flastii! Time for my cake! We gonna meet on floor 47 today. They got a special on strawberry cream cakes that I ain't gonna miss. See ya soon! ^_^."

Majiku must have read my face.

"Now is time for cake?" He asked, referencing a video from the real world.

"Now is time for cake," I sighed.

"Seriously man, Don't let her go. She's nice, fiery, and strong." It was rare to hear him get so emotionally attached. He never liked to admit it, but he was always looking out for me. I spaced out thinking about what he said. The more I thought, the more he was right, and the more I panicked.

"Yea, I suppose she is huh?" I wanted to stop thinking about it. Not because I didn't like her. But because I did. And I didn't want anything to happen to her. It would tear me apart. It drove me nuts when she told me about the dangerous stuff she was doing to get Intel for others, but I knew it had to be done. Does not mean I have to like it. As I was drifting off into my own world I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Aincrad to Flastor. Come in Flastor. You're gonna be late bro. She will murder you dead," Majiku said. I shook my head to focus my thoughts.

"Uh, right. No murdering today," I said, turning to him. He smiled and held up his fist, I fist bumped him and walked to the center of floor 70.

2

The Flower Garden.

That is what the 47th floor was called. Literally, the entire floor was a bed of flowers, ranging in different colors. When the wind blew, it almost looked like a flowing sea of endless colors. It also had a reputation for drawing couples. It was, after all, the most romantic spot you could find in Aincrad... Or so I'm told.

I weaved through the crowd, trying to find the brown cloak I had grown familiar with. After about 2 laps around the plaza, I gave up and sent a message to her.

"Um... Are you late?" I sent. Almost immediately I got a response.

"Turn around, dummy." I did as the message commanded. What I saw nearly made me fall over. Sitting at a table, maybe 5 feet from me, was Argo.

But... She was different.

Instead of her usual brown cloak and, matching brown and green leather armor. She wore a black shirt, with thick gold stripes going down diagonally. She had on a pair of white pants that fit snugly. Where her hood should have been, was golden blonde hair that came down to her shoulders unevenly. It hit me why I didn't see her. This may have been the first time I laid eyes on Argo without her hood or cloak on.

She smiled at me. The flowers around her in the background seemed to glow slightly brighter than the rest.

"You're gonna catch flies at this rate, Boy," She said while turning rosy. That was seriously not helping the glow much. I realized my mouth was hanging open and I regained my composure.

"You... Uh... You look great!" I stammered. I sat down across from Argo.

"You think so? I had Asu make me up these threads," She said looking down at her outfit.

"It really suits you, Argo." I realized I couldn't take my eyes off off her. Argo leaned forward and put her head on her hand.

"So... My cake?" She asked, smiling slyly.

"Oh right," I tore my eyes from Argo to flag down a waiter. I ordered the full Strawberry Delight, and a couple of drinks.

"Coming right up!" The waiter said as she walked away. I sat back and looked at Argo.

"So, how you been fairing this week? Any good tips?" Argo shrugged, keeping her head on her hand.

"Not much. Hunting spots that you already know about. Quests that people failed spectacularly. Get this, there was one quest where someone had to wear a chicken costume as an advertisement for an NPC shop."

She pulled out a picture from her pocket and held it up to me. Sure enough, there was a dude, in a chicken suit. His head was sticking out where the beak was. Argo giggled.

"That.. is hilarious. How did you not post this in the paper?" I asked, holding back my laughter.

"The guy paid me 3000 Col to keep quiet," She said, smiling like crazy.

"I'll pay you 4000 to post it," I said jokingly.

We both laughed. We tossed stories back and forth. Her getting wrapped up in crazy situations. Majiku and I causing all kinds of fights. Our waiter came up with Argo's cake. It was the size of a dinner platter with pink frosting and strawberries all around the top.

"Oooohhhhh! Yummy cake!" Argo cheered, her eyes growing wide with anticipation, and face turning rosy again in excitement. Then I noticed that the waiter only had one glass on her tray. Which was weird because the NPC waiters never got an order wrong. She placed the large glass in-between Argo and me.

"It's complimentary for couples during the cake special!" The waiter said happily. I was still confused, then I saw that there were two straws sticking out of the top. I looked at Argo, thinking she would say, "Oh no, it's not like that." But she just stared at me, smiling.

She freakin' planned this. She wasn't turning red from excitement... At least not entirely. I caught myself staring at her again. Damn, she needed to dress like this more often.

"Ya just gonna look at me or are ya gonna help me with this cake and drink?" She asked. Argo picked up her fork and dug in. As she ate I still couldn't get my mind to think straight. Argo opened her eyes and smiled again. She picked up a piece of cake and stuffed it in my mouth. That was one way to snap me out of it.

She giggled and retreated her fork.

I finally got control of my head and started eating my half of the cake. There was a moment when we both were drinking out of the glass and I thought I heard the sound of a picture being taken. I ignored it, thinking it was nothing. We ate until the cake was gone. After we were stuffed with cake, we leaned back and just sat for awhile.

Then a sound like a message notification sounded from Argo. She looked annoyed.

"Oh for the love of-" She started to curse.

"Go ahead," I said. She still had her work to do after all.

She smiled and opened her menu. As she read her message her face grew more worried, then it grew to sheer terror. Before she could freak out I placed my hand over hers to remind her I was still here.

"What's wrong?" She looked like she was having trouble finding her voice. After a second she spoke.

"Laughing Coffin..." She said shakily. "Someone found their HQ."

3

Laughing Coffin.

The most infamous guild of PKers.

Last I heard their group had grown to 100 strong or so and operated completely in the shadows. So for someone to find their HQ was surprising, I almost didn't believe it.

"Who found it?" I asked, trying to stay calm.

"Says a group of KoB guys was levelin' in a dungeon. They even gave me a list." She beckoned me to scoot next to her while she revealed her menu screen to me. The message read like this,

"Laughing Coffin HQ found by KoB members Rena, Kyjo, and Tensha. Along with solo player, Willow." I froze at Willow. I hadn't been keeping good tabs on her. I kept reading the message. "You have received this message from the KoB to recruit powerful players for a raid to eradicate Laughing Coffin. This message and all of its contents are restricted to recruiters and recruits for the raid."

Eradicate? Are they serious? Do they want to take on Laughing Coffin?

Do they want to kill them? Or just disarm them?

Thoughts were flying in my head. Raid formations. Strategies. I had never been a part of a raid for other players. There were so many unknowns that I almost wanted to protest the raid.

I looked at Argo's face and it was full of worry and dread.

Then it hit me. She was gonna be the one to round up Majiku and me for the raid. I put my hand on Argo's shoulder. She was shaking slightly.

"We have to at least hear them out. I promise though, if I don't like the situation, I won't go," I said. This seemed to calm her down a bit.

"Yeah, well you should go anyway. The more people they have going the better off their chances are." She forced the words out like she was throwing them up.

I couldn't blame her. Laughing Coffin was full of high-level players. And unlike most players, they specialize in killing other players. This raid will have to have all of the top tier players they could get. I stood up and opened my menu to send a message to Maj.

"Meet at KoB HQ in Granzam. They are going after Laughing Coffin and they want us there."

It took him a few minutes to respond.

"I'll be there."

I offered my hand to Argo to help her up.

"Well, this is a crappy way to end the day huh?" I said. Trying to lighten the mood. For once, it didn't work.

"I need to be there," Argo said, with a sunken, worried expression. My mind went blank. "I have to be there... To take shots for the paper."

"No way Argo," I said, stern but soft. "I can tell your heart isn't in this. Plus, this won't happen in a pretty fashion. They won't just roll over and say 'dang, you caught us,' They are gonna fight to kill." She hung her head, I choose my words poorly. I just made her worry more.

"Argo, you have my word, I'm coming back. There is no way I'll let these scumbags take me down." I put my hand on her head. "We will take them down, Cannon Bro style," I said, smiling. This seemed to cheer her up. "Do me a favor though, could you let Austin and Peyton know?" I was worried I blew it, but she understood.

She nodded. "You got it, but you better come back to me, Boy"

"Count on it," I said. Before I could turn to walk away she got on her toes and planted a kiss on my cheek.

"Consider that good luck," She said, holding back tears. All I could do was smile.

"Well with that, how could I lose?" I made my way to the Teleport Gate in the center of the plaza. I gave the command, "Teleport: Granzam." As light enveloped my body, my last look of Argo, was her smiling. A tear streaming down her face.

When I got to Granzam, Majiku was sitting at a table with a girl. Wait, what?

He was trying to console her. She was calm, but tears were streaming down her face like a river.

She looked cute. She had long red hair. She wearing a white and red tunic, the uniform of the KoB. He looked over and saw me and motioned to wait a second. I nodded and leaned on one of the pillars of the Teleport Gate. After a minute she seemed to calm down. She smiled and nodded. With that Majiku got up and walked over to me.

"What happened to her?" I asked. He seemed like he was pissed.

"She's one of the ones who found the HQ, Rena. She was stupidly shaken up. She asked me to hang out while I waited for you. What she told me is grim, man." He explained that the HQ was in a dungeon on the front of floor 70. They are so backed in there they may be impossible to get to with full health.

"Jesus, this is starting to sound impossible," I said. I looked at the girl, Rena. She was smiling at us, trying to hide her fear. I smiled and waved. "We have to kick their ass, for the ones that found them." As if on cue I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Hey,"

I turned to see Willow, sporting updated leather armor over a purple and black tunic. Her scimitar, MoonStruck Sabre, strapped to her waist.

"Willow! How... Uh... How are you?" I said trying to watch my words.

"Well, I just stumbled on the biggest group of PKers that could have easily killed me. Other than that, I'm great." She said.

"Right, sorry," I said, scratching my face.

We walked together to the HQ of the Knights of the Blood Oath. A large, metal, gray castle. It sits outside of the first town of Granzam. When we got there, there were about 50 players milling around the outside of the castle. Before we could join them 2 guards stopped us.

"HALT! This meeting is restricted to invited guests only," One of the guards said. Majiku and I turned to make our faces fully visible to them. "Oh... Right, I can't see anything out of this stupid helmet, go in." They let all three of us pass.

I recognized a few faces in the crowd. The entire Fuurinkazan guild, with their leader, Klein, were here. Some members of the Holy Dragon Alliance were here too, all of them were the front liners in every boss fight.

Then I saw Kirito, standing with Asuna, over a table. He saw us and held his hand up in greeting. Asuna shot him a dirty look for not paying attention. He panicked, said a quick word of sorry, and then pointed to us. She lightened up and beckoned us forward. As we approached the table I saw a couple of guys that looked shattered, they must have been the ones that found the HQ. She leaned up and regarded us.

"Good to see you guys, with you here, we should have no problems," Asuna said in her best commanders voice.

Asuna continued the briefing. "We need to move as one, looking out in all directions. These guys are masters of stealth. So we should assume an attack from either the flanks or behind after we engage," She explained. She really has improved since the beginning. "We should still have the element of surprise since this meeting is still a secret. Even so, we need to be ready for everything and anything." Asuna finished. "Report to your squads, we move out in half an hour. Dismissed."

Half of the KoB guys saluted her and walked off. Klein, looking seriously concerned, walked to address his guild. The rest just nodded and walked back to their respective groups.

Majiku spoke up. "Be honest with me, how bad are we looking?" After Asuna was sure no one was looking, the tension in her body subsided, and her face grew slack with worry.

"We can't think about the bad. It' only gonna make us slower," Kirito said, keeping Asuna from revealing her true worry. This gave her the chance.

"We will be fine," Asuna regained her composure and smiled at us, "We have the top 4 players in the game here now." This made me feel awkward. Praise never came easily to me. Especially when the praise was saying I was one of the best. Majiku slapped the back of my head.

"You heard the lady, we will be fine. The Cannon Bros are on the case." He said.

Everyone laughed, trying to shake the uneasiness out of our bodies.

We hung out for a bit, talking strategies, and just swapping stories. I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. Like I was being watched by a pair hunters eyes, and I was the prey. Willow must have read my face. She elbowed me softly.

"What's wrong?" She asked. Everyone looked at me and grew worried. I must not have been doing a good job of hiding my seriousness. I recovered and grinned.

"It's nothing. Before I was here I was with Argo. Guess I'm just annoyed that I'm here now." I knew I walked into a minefield, but I accepted it for the sake of lightening the mood.

I was meet by a round of chiding and poking fun at the fact. I didn't let that bad feeling form on my face again, but it was still poking in the back of my head. After about 45 minutes (Asuna decided to wait a bit to let all the jitters out) she stood on a podium so everyone could see her.

"Alright, we move out now! Watch each other's backs! And remember, absolutely no killing! The goal is to disarm and break their spirit, and send them to BlackIron Palace." A cheer went up from everyone.

Secretly we were all looking forward to not have to worry about Laughing Coffin while trying to clear the game. As the formation came to be, Asuna and the Knights were up front, The Holy Dragon Alliance to the left, Fuurinkazan to the right, Majiku, me, Willow, and Kirito brought up the rear with a space in the middle for us to get to the front if needed.

As the raiding party left a different feeling washed over me, still being watched. But it was more kind, and concerned. Like a protective hawk was flying overhead.

As we marched I still couldn't shake the feeling that two forces were fighting here now. A set of eyes were bearing down in front of me, waiting to strike, and another behind me, in the trees, trying to protect me.

After a while, the entrance to the dungeon appeared in a mountain in front of us. As soon as we stepped through the air grew thick.

"You feel that?" Majiku asked, walking next to me.

"It's like the air itself just wants to suffocate me." I shuttered. Asuna looked back and I motioned with my other hand, asking to send a message. She nodded, knowing who it was going to.

I opened my menu and wrote a quick message to Argo, and Austin. She must have told them by now.

"We just got to the dungeon. I'll message when we are on the way back."

After I sent it I could have sworn I heard the notification sound come from somewhere in the bushes.

I scanned the tree line, with my Detection Skill on full blast.

Nothing.

Not a monster, NPC, or player within a mile of us. Must have just been my imagination going crazy. Majiku grabbed my shoulder and shook slightly.

"Bro, come on, we're falling behind." I realized that the group and moved forward into the dungeon without us. Willow stood next to him, looking at me with a concerned gaze.

"Yeah, let us go," I said. I glanced over my shoulder one more time, then turned to walk into the cave.

4

We ran to catch up with the group. As we got closer the air got heavier.

I wasn't keeping track of time, but we must have walked for at least 10 minutes. Weaving through the dungeon. We encountered no monsters, and the only footsteps were the metallic ones that the group was making. I looked at Willow and she seemed determined. More composed than the girl that was ran down by skeletons about a month ago.

I regarded her and asked. "So how goes the leveling?" Trying to make small talk to ease the tension.

Without breaking her gaze forward Willow spoke. "Yesterday I got to 85. Leveled up my AGI. I'm probably twice as fast as the last time you saw me fight."

She must have thought that I was concerned about her being here. But that wasn't the case. I saw first hand when she dueled Maj how fast she was. If she was twice as fast now, then there was no topping her speed as a Scimitar user. The only one who could rival her speed as a curved sword user was Klein, but his skills were based on hitting hard and smooth, rather than hitting fast.

"Cool. Find any good drops lately?" I asked.

"We should stay focused. We will be there soon," Willow said.

So much for small talk.

But she was right. The corridors were changing.

As we got closer I could see scratch marks on the floor and walls. I tried hard not to think about where they were from. But still, I got the feeling we weren't in the right place. I had my Detection Skill on full. I assumed Majiku and Kirito did as well.

The weird thing was, Laughing Coffin was almost 100 members strong. With 3 high-level Detection Skills looking, some were bound to show up for one of us. But there was nothing, not a single ping anywhere near us. Willow started to look worried.

"It should be right up here," Willow said. I drew my sword. As we walked the cave opened into a wide open room. It was the size of a coliseum. All around, tents were pitched and banners flowed, the symbol of Laughing Coffin stitched in every one.

But all around, there was nothing. No players. No weapons. Nothing. The camp was completely deserted.

I looked at Willow, her face was a mix of confusion and annoyance.

"They were here, all of them. They were here no more than a day ago." She wasn't wrong.

The signs clearly pointed they were here. But to have the entire guild be moved at once, there was something wrong. The group started whispering to each other. Trying to figure out what happened. But I already knew.

Kirito walked up next to me and spoke softly, Maj leaned in so he could hear.

"You know what happened, right?" He asked, I didn't want to say it out loud, but it was plainly obvious.

"We have been watched. This whole time, someone has been reporting back to Laughing Coffin. They probably bailed as soon as we left the KoB HQ. Or worse." I couldn't finish the thought.

I realized we were hopelessly outmatched. This is their territory now.

I looked at Kirito. "We need to fall back, we can't stay in here anymore. With the element of surprise gone they now have the upper hand." He nodded.

"Right, I'll talk to Asuna. We need to regroup and come up with a different plan." He turned and walked to her. Willow looked furious.

"You're not thinking we lied, do you?" She asked. Her eyes flared with anger.

"No, that's not it. None of the people that discovered the HQ have been left out of sight. So no messages from you, or them, could have caused it." Majiku explained. I chimed in to fully clean up that possibility.

"You and the two guys are here in the group, we were all ordered to keep out menus closed unless given permission." I went on. "And the girl who stayed back," Majiku stepped in for this one.

"Rena. She's with trusted friends, they are also part of Asuna's personal guard," He said, with a hint of pride. "So the odds of them betraying are very close to none."

"Honestly right now, there's no point in finding out who did what. We just need to get out of here." Right as I said that, Asuna gave the order to fall back to the KoB HQ as fast and cautiously as possible.

The party flipped so the KoB members were still out front and we brought up the rear.

Instead of a slow steady march, we all picked up the pace for a slight jog. Slow enough to make sure the heavy armor users didn't get tired, but fast enough to make decent progress. The 10 minutes it took to get back there turned into 8.

As we rounded the last corner daylight started to shine. The exit was just up ahead. Were they really gonna let us walk out? As if he was reading my mind Majiku spoke up.

"Don't think about it just go!"

But our luck ran out. Behind us, I heard a whistling sound, like metal flying through the air. Before I could even react Maj drew his massive sword and blocked 5 throwing knives. At the same time, my Detection Skill went off. I looked, and we were surrounded by a sea of orange, indicating criminal players.

"Ambush! Brace!" I yelled. At the same time, a bloodthirsty yell echoed through the cavern. The entire Laughing Coffin guild surrounded us and charged.

5

All around me, chaos, anarchy.

Laughing Coffin got us like a bear in a trap. 20 people rushed us from behind. Majiku roared in defiance and swung his blade in front of us, slashing a few of them good. He even broke a couple of their knives.

The rest advanced. One guy charged me low, but I deflected his blade up and went to swipe down. But he rolled and we locked blades. He had an evil look in his eyes and a wicked smile like he was having a blast.

"You didn't think we were gonna let ya walk out of here alive did ya?" He wailed and tried to slash me again.

He was all talk, stupid slow, and clumsy. Instead of meeting his blade, I spun to the left, swung upwards and cut his hands off. It wouldn't kill, just keep him disarmed for the fight. They wouldn't come back without time and a special potion. One down, 99 to go.

The battle raged on. Our group was successful in disarming most of them.

Then the first casualty happened on our side. One of The Holy Dragon Alliance was cut down from behind. This sent the whole guild into a rage. They forgot all about no killing and went on a spree. This seemed to fire up Laughing Coffin that much more.

The formation was shattered. I realized every few minutes I was standing next to a different person. At one time, I was fighting with Maj, flipping over him to cover his back while he tried to get multiple hits and keep a majority of the players at bay.

After a few more rounds, and incapacitating a few more people, I found I was fighting with Willow.

She was fighting like a whirlwind. Her sword would catch the light every so often and blind her opponent. She had amazing acrobatic skills, so I just stood in the center, taking on anyone that broke through her onslaught. Even going at full speed she didn't kill anyone.

After that was the craziest match up. Kirito and myself, fighting back to back.

I was later told that we looked like 2 sword demons dancing around each other, cutting down anyone that dared step close. Then came the moment when Kirito panicked. He lost his composure and slashed one of his foes almost cleanly in half.

He almost lost it until I smacked the back of his head. Not to punish him, he did what he had to do. But mostly to bring him back to reality.

"Focus man, we aren't done yet," I said, as another dude rushed me and we locked swords. He almost overpowered me but Kirito swept from behind and got his hands. Kirito looked at me, determined again.

"Sorry. I'm back." He said.

We continued on, fighting like crazy. It seemed like the enemy's numbers just weren't going anywhere fast, even though we were tearing through them.

Then I got careless. For a second I saw a ray of hope and lost focus. As I did someone knocked my sword out of my hands.

"Gotcha now you Blue Boy!" The guy said as he started to bring his sword down on me.

Weaponless, my instincts took over and I crossed my arms to defend my vital parts. Right before he connected there was a flash of brown, and something stopped his sword. I looked up and in front of me was a small person shrouded in a brown cloak, wielding claws.

"That's MY 'Blue Boy' wise guy!" Argo said. She brought her other claw up and swiped at his wrist, filleting his hands off. The only thing I could think of to say was,

"God I love you but I hate you woman."

"No time for that. Heads up!" She warned.

I leaned to the left and a knife and arm shot past my head. I grabbed it and flipped the owner over me and onto his back. I held him down as Argo cleanly took care of his hands.

"You might need this!" I head someone yell to my right. Klein, from the Fuurinkazan guild, had my sword. I saw someone approach Argo from behind. Klein saw it too and he threw my sword in a way that made the handle fly to me first. I started to turn

"Duck!" I yelled. Argo got it and rolled down. As my sword got to me, I grabbed it and slashed the guy in the chest.

"Yea! How you like me now punk?" I said, feeling energized.

"Come on showoff. We are close to being done," Argo said.

As she walked up to me, a blade materialized in her chest. Her eyes grew wide with terror.

Behind her, an ugly dude was grinning like a madman. Staring at me with bloodthirsty eyes.

"No... NOOOO!" I roared.

I lost it. All my composure, gone. I spun behind Argo, sliced up to get the guys hand, then spun and lobbed his head off. After that, my mind went blank.

6

I had to be filled in with the details when my mind went blank. The battle was winding down but I was on a rampage. It didn't matter if I struck to kill or not, I just flowed through the enemy like they were stationary. After I had cut down the last guy in front of me he laid on his back and tried to move away.

I walked towards him and raised my sword to bring it down. Right as I did I felt 3 guys grab me to hold me back.

That was when I regained control of myself and my mind cleared. Maj was holding my arms back, Klein held my body back, and Kirito blocked my sword with his. After my mind became fully clear. I lowered my sword and sank to my knees. Then I remembered,

"Argo... Is she?" I mumbled.

"She's fine. Surprisingly she got the only blade that wasn't poisoned in the bunch," Maj said, holding my shoulder. The guy in front of me sneered.

"Was that your first time killing someone? It felt good, didn't it? They should call you the Blue Demon instead. Why don't you keep going you wim-" He was cut off by Majiku driving his massive sword next to his face.

"Shut you're hole you nasty bastard or I'll lob your head off guillotine style."

I had never heard him sound more serious in my life. The guy whimpered, got up and tried to run. Only to get cut off by two KoB guys. They dragged him to the others who surrendered and would be sent to jail. Then the horror hit me.

"How many?" I asked. I could hear Maj shuffle in place.

"Look, man. You did what you had to-"

"Don't bullshit me, Alex. How many did I kill?" Kirito and Klein looked confused on top of worried when I used Majikus real name. He stood absolutely still.

"5... You took down 5 after the guy that got Argo," He said.

Grief filled my emotions.

I killed 6 people.

And I don't even remember their faces. They were people too. Assholes or not, I was still fighting to free them from this world. And I killed them.

I drove my fist into the ground in front of me, creating a crater the size of a plate. I couldn't find any words. No emotion could describe what was going on in my head.

Klein kneeled next to me. This was the first time I had any kind of interaction with him.

"Listen, man, you fought bravely out there. Even better, you fought for your girl. No one can hold that against you," He said. "You can not let yourself feel anything like this for scum like them. They killed for fun."

He was right, it still didn't make me feel better. I looked at Kirito, he had a similar shattered look to him. Did he kill more than the one guy? It didn't matter. I wanted to put this nightmare behind me.

Klein got up and offered his hand, I grabbed it and pulled myself to my feet. As we were walking out, I stopped next to Argo, who was sitting with Asuna.

I kneeled next to her, not meeting her eyes.

"I'm sorry you had to see that. I'm sorry that you chose to save someone that cant keep themselves under control," I couldn't tell how she was reacting. "My promise still stands. I will get you out of here. But for now, I think its best that we part ways." I left it at that and waited for an answer. I waited for her to become enraged with me. To tell me to leave and never so much as look at her ever again.

But nothing. She didn't say a word.

Without looking at Argo, I stood up and walked away.

"Flastor!" Majiku shot. I didn't stop. Without looking back, I walked out of the cave.

Epilogue

I walked back to the main town of floor 70. The entire raiding party was about 10 feet behind me. The only one that walked next to me was my brother. But he didn't say a word to me.

When we got back to town, Austin and Peyton were waiting for us to get back. When they saw us, they smiled. Happy that we came back from what was sure to be a death trap.

When I got close Austin stepped up to me.

"Hey man, glad you came back," He held out his hand for a handshake. I just walked by him, not even looking at him. Peyton was next to him and she held her hand out to stop me.

"Flas. What's wrong?" She asked. I moved her hand off of me and kept walking. Austin started to walk to me to smack my head, but Maj caught him.

"What the hell is his deal?" Austin asked, looking at Majiku.

"It was not pretty. I'll tell you about it later. Just leave him be for now," Maj said.

I walked to the other entrance to town to keep leveling. When I got out of earshot to everyone I spoke to my self.

"Sorry... I will get you all out. But you all need to stay away from me until then."

END PART FOUR.


	5. Aincrad 5: The Demon and The Rat

A month has passed. The front has slowed dramatically. We were on 73 now.

Word of the incident has spread to everyone, including what I did.

Now, instead of a mix of praise or annoyance. I got looks of terror when I came into town. Which wasn't very often.

My new name that people gave me was the Blue Demon. Whenever someone called me that, Majiku would stare them down. Warning them not to call me that. Not because I would flip on them or anything. But because that was not my name, and who that was in the cave was not me.

Honestly, I didn't care anymore. My goal was to beat this hellhole and set all of my friends free. Even if I die doing so.

I beat Kirito to the last attack bonuses in the last two boss fights. But I only got them by pushing my health down to maybe 5%. I got a new, powerful sword from one of them. It was called Tyrfing. It was navy blue and black, with a pointed guard and pommel.

The other dropped a cloth enhancement kit that had 10 charges. I split it with Maj and they were all successful. So our stats were now on par with a heavy armor user. But we didn't lose any of our speed.

I haven't seen Argo since the raid, and it was for the best. She only got hurt because she came to help me. Then she watched me kill people, and do it with such malice. I wouldn't want her to have to relive that memory by seeing me again. I couldn't do that to her.

So I went out of my way to stay away from her. If she was in town, I would stay out. If she was in the field, I would be at the opposite end of the floor. If she never saw me again, it would be great. Because I could never look her in the eyes again after what I did.

1

Majiku and I, along with the Knights of the Blood oath and a group of other front liners, were walking to take on the field boss for the 73rd Floor. The rest of the group walked about 3 feet in front of us while Majiku and I brought up the rear.

Every so often, Asuna would glance back to me, concerned.

I just looked through her. It wasn't to make myself look angry. I just didn't care. I was getting sick of the concerned looks that I was getting. People have tried to console me. Tried to talk to me about what happened. I would just shut them out.

I haven't seen Austin, Peyton, Willow, or Liz since we came back. I had about 20 unread messages collectively from all of them. It was better if I stayed away anyway. They have all seen me either almost kill or turn into a killer now. I couldn't see why they would even want to be near me.

We broke into a clearing where the field boss was. When we did, Asuna ordered the group to be ready. Then the Boss came swinging in.

It was an ape about 3 stories tall. It had four arms, all of them wielded wooden mallets that were sharpened to a point.

"The Jungle Guardian: Jugo" Was its name.

Jugo roared and charged at our group. A wave of pent up anger and aggression washed over me and I dashed forward, drawing Tyrfing.

"Flastor!" Asuna called.

"You dumbass!" Majiku shot to me. By the time anyone was able to move to me I was lined up with Jugo.

I slashed 5 times in the blink of an eye. Then I jumped onto his back and slashed 4 more times. His first of three health bars was down about 25%. Then one of his arms reached around and grabbed me.

"Crap," I cursed.

Jugo threw me in the air and hit me with his mallet like I was a baseball. As soon as his mallet made contact with me, my health went from full, to yellow.

I grunted as I hit the ground hard, creating a crater around me. The rest of the raid charged to get Jugo off of me. As they did, Majiku and Asuna ran to me.

Before either of them got to me I got up and charged again. I shot passed the raid and started chopping again as fast as I could.

I activated a Sword Skill I just learned, Deadly Sins. A 9 part skill that had me moving around Jugo in a glow of blue. After the skill was done I was locked up. I couldn't move because the system had me frozen after using a skill that I hadn't had full mastery in yet.

Jugo swung his mallet at me and it connected perfectly. Once again I was sent flying.

When I landed I looked at my health. I had maybe 15% left. I wasn't phased in the slightest. My promise to everyone rang in my ears as I struggled to get up.

I started to run to Jugo again, but was intercepted by a flash of crimson. My anger overflowed and I started to scream.

"Let me go, damn it! I'm gonna beat that overgrown ape and get us out!" I roared. I tried to pry myself from Majikus grip. "I can't stand this place! Let me go so I can get us out!"

"Flastor," Majiku couldn't find the right words to calm me down.

Then I felt a sharp pain on my face... Someone slapped me.

"You idiot!" Asuna yelled. I looked over at her in time to see Jugo shatter.

The entire group was walking up to us. And they were pissed that I trashed the plan, and that I risked my life to fight a boss by myself. Before they all could say anything to me, Asuna turned to them.

"Leave, NOW!" She ordered them. They all stopped in their tracks like Asuna's stare had erected an invisible wall between us and them.

They all stared me down, some in pity, some in anger. Then they left us. None of them were ready or willing to piss Asuna off.

When they were all out of sight Asuna turned to me.

"What is your problem?" She asked sternly. "You just charged a BOSS Flastor. ALONE. Not even Kirito is that stupid."

I hung my head. For once I was better than Kirito at something. I could feel her stare on the back of my head.

"Sorry," I said, softly.

"Look at me, Flastor," Asuna ordered. I did as she said. She was fully ready to pummel me with the next wrong word. "You need a break from the front. Go somewhere that involves no fighting. Stay there until your head is back on straight."

I looked at her, ready to tell her off. Say that I was going to keep my promise. But it was almost like she was staring me into the ground. Like she was forcing the anger and grief that was keeping me going out of my mind. I looked down to the ground.

"Fine," I shook myself from Majikus grip. Asuna nodded at me.

"Go back to 22. You like that place right?" She said, trying to cheer me up. Maj patted my back lightly.

"Come on man. Let's hang the swords up for awhile," he said. I just nodded and started walking back to town.

2

Majiku and I both appeared in the teleport plaza of Floor 22. The floor was basically a floor full of lakes and forests. It was probably one of my favorite places in this stupid castle.

When we got there I was about to start wandering, when Majiku grabbed my coat color.

I turned to him, annoyed.

"What?"

"You will not go into a fight. Understand? I will be watching your health bar," Maj said, sternly. "If it even budges I will be there to knock you into next Tuesday."

"Fine, fine. Let me go," I said, shaking him off. I unequipped my sword. "There. Happy?"

Maj just stared at me. He had a slightly hurt look to him. I turned and walked to the edge of town. As I did people parted ways for me.

They were all stare at me like I'm some monster about to kill them all.

I just hung my head and walked, hands in my pockets. After about a half an hour I was about to walk out of town and explore the woods. Then someone called out to me.

"Hey! Flastor!"

I turned to the source of the voice. When I saw it, I instantly filled with dread.

It was Austin.

"Oh... Hey," I said, without emotion. Austin walked up and held his hand out. I hesitated, then I shook it lightly.

"Haven't seen you in awhile. How have you-"

"Fine," I cut him off and started walking.

Austin grabbed my shoulder and spun me. His face clearly showed he was pissed.

"Listen here, schmuck. We are going to hang out. Right here, right now." He said. I tried to shake him off but he tightened his grip. "I'm not accepting no as an answer. I will follow your ass back to the front if I have to." I finally sighed.

"Fine, stubborn ass. What do you want to do?" I said. Austin smiled.

"There's a restaurant not far from here that has good sandwiches like we used to get," My stomach growled. "And judging from your stomach, you could use one," Austin said. I hung my head, cursing my stomach for giving me away.

"K. Lead the way," I said.

When we got to the restaurant, I wanted to run.

Sitting at a table, was Peyton, Willow, Majiku, and the girl from before, Rena.

"The hell is this?" I said, annoyed.

"We need to talk, bonehead," Majiku said.

I turned on my heel and started to walk, but Austin caught my shoulder.

"Sit your ass down, Boy." When Austin said 'boy', I instantly thought of Argo and got pissed.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" I shouted. Staring at him.

Austin looked like I had punched him. I looked back at the others and they were eyeing me like I was about to pitch myself off of the edge of Aincrad.

"Sorry. I just..." I hung my head.

Thinking of Argo made my heart throb. I haven't seen her in so long. I don't even know if she is doing OK.

Austin lightened his grip on me, realizing why I snapped.

"Come on man. Sit with your family," he said, lightly.

"You are not my family," I said, coldly.

I was trying to get them to hate me so they would stay away. I didn't want them in any more danger or to have any more trauma while in this death game.

Peyton stared me down, clearly reading my thoughts somehow. And ready to beat the crap out of me.

"You listen to me, you hard headed ass," she had a steely yet soft tone. "We may not all be blood. But we have been through too much together."

"We are more of a family than most real ones are," Willow finished. "And when members of a family need help, they get it. And right now, you need help."

"I don't need anyone's help!" I shot, staring them all down. They all looked at me like I had stabbed all of their hearts.

Rena got to her feet and walked to me. When she got to me she smacked the back of my head like Majiku or my Dad would to snap me out of being pissed.

"Why?" She asked.

I looked at Rena, stunned.

"Why are you being like this? From what your brother has told me about you. You are nothing like this! You are always ready to help and always smiling in some way! No matter what happens, you are always trying to find the bright side." Her eyes bored into me like she was trying to make me catch fire.

I narrowed my eyes. "Did they not tell you what happened?" I said, annoyed. Rena grabbed my coat and pulled me close.

"They told me that you protected someone with your life!" Her saying that like I was a hero made me snap.

"I KILLED PEOPLE!" I pulled myself from Rena's grip.

"IT WAS THEM, OR YOURSELF OR ARGO!" Rena shouted back to me.

"THEN IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!"

Peyton shot to her feet so fast the chair she was sitting in fell over.

Without looking me in the eye, she walked up to me and smacked me so hard that it cut me and took my health down a percent.

Everyone just stared at me and her.

"Since neither your parents or sister are here to do that. I had to," she said, in a dark tone. I looked at her, not being able to talk. "Don't you DARE say you should die. You mean too much to the people that did and still do care about you."

"Seriously. If your sister or Mom and Dad heard you say that," Austin didn't need to finish. I started to ease a bit.

"But... Who am I do just kill someone? And not even remember their names or faces?" I said, looking down. "No one deserves to die, no matter how evil."

"Flas. You need to know," Majiku said, standing up. "When you blacked out. You never went more than two feet away from Argo."

I felt the tension drain from my body.

"Huh?" Was all I could manage.

"He's right," Willow continued. "You didn't go on a rampage, or kill without reason. Anyone that was stupid enough to try to kill Argo while she was down, met your blade."

"That's what Klein was saying, dude. Ask me how many you fought total," Maj said.

I played along. "How many did I-"

"15," Maj cut me off. "Out of the 15, 5 were stupid enough to keep coming at Argo. With their health being so low, you didn't have a choice. If you held back at all, Argo would be dead."

"You're telling me that those low life criminals deserve to be alive and Argo and you should be dead? That is the stupidest trade ever," Willow said, walking up to me. "Not only did you save Argo. You saved all of the people that those creeps could have and would have killed if you and Argo would have died."

I let that sink in. It was clear what they were saying now. My knees buckled slightly. Austin grabbed a chair so I could sit down. Willow placed her hand on my shoulder while I slumped over.

"They may be calling you a Demon," I tensed at the word. "But they are only calling you that because you fought like one. Not because you killed people."

"You need to stop feeling like this for them," Maj said. "They did it to themselves."

I held the sides of my head for a bit. They weren't just saying this to make me sound any better. I could tell it was the genuine truth. I was only protecting Argo. After a few minutes, I took a long, shaky breath. Then I stood up.

"Sorry, everyone." I looked at every one of them. Trying to convey that to each of them. "I thought after everything, you all wouldn't even want to be near me. Let alone talk to me," I said. "But... I see now that not talking to you all has only made you worry more. And for that, I'm really sorry."

All at once the tension in all of them drained. Then they all smiled at me with wicked grins.

"If that's how you feel then there is only one person you need to apologize too," Maj said. I wasn't following and they could tell.

Austin smacked my shoulder lightly. "You idiot. You need to say sorry to Argo."

I lowered back onto the chair and looked away. There was no way that I could force Argo to remember what I did by seeing her again.

"There is no way she..." Peyton raised my head to look at her.

"Do you realize how worried she has been? She has been to the shop every day to try to catch you or at least hear from you," Peyton said.

I shook my head.

"What? No way she wants to see you?" She said, smiling. "You really are stupid. She has been WAITING for you!"

"She has been feeling the same way you have, man," Austin said. I looked at him, "She thinks that if you see her, you will remember and freak out. She's been tearing herself apart just as much as you have been."

I stared at him, wide-eyed. There is no way she has been feeling that. Has she?

The sound of a message sounded from Willow.

"Oh come on... Now?" She complained. There was a burning sensation in the back of my head.

"Open it," I said, standing up.

"It can wait," Willow said. She started to close her menu but I caught her wrist.

"Willow, open it," I said. Please let me be wrong.

She looked at me, then nodded. She navigated to her messages and opened the most recent one. When she read it her eyes got wide.

"Shit," She made her window visible to me. The message was from Argo. All it said was.

"Help"

My eyes grew wide and panic swelled up.

"Where is she?" I said. Willow opened her friend's list and clicked Argos name. She opened the map to see her location. When she did she lost her breath.

"Dungeon on 70..." She said, shakily.

I equipped Tyrfing and started to run, but Maj grabbed my arm. I looked at him in panic.

"What? Let me go!" I shouted, trying to free myself from his grip.

"You aren't going alone, hotshot," Maj said.

Everyone walked up behind him. Even Austin and Peyton.

"You two? But... You can't," I said to them.

"We have been leveling behind your back buddy. Both of us are level 75." Austin said. I didn't have the time or the patience to argue.

"OK, FINE. COME ON!" I yanked my arm free and dashed to the teleport plaza in the main town as fast as I could. Everyone was hot on my heels.

3

As soon as ground meet my feet I shot off of the teleport gate, straight down the same road to Laughing Coffins old HQ.

What the hell was she doing there?

Willow must have been reading my face. "She was following a tip that some of the LC guys made it out of the cave and were trying to reform."

"Why didn't she call for help?" I asked, purely annoyed at her recklessness.

"You must be rubbing off on her. She wanted to find them, get a group together, and take them down before you knew." Willow said, looking at me. "She didn't want you to know that there were still LC guys running around. She was worried you would take them alone."

"Damn it. I should have been there," I cursed myself.

Willow looked forward as we ran. "She must have found them. Or-"

"Or I'm gonna knock some heads if someone hurts her," I said.

Willow smiled at me. "Good to have you back."

I nodded and sped up.

When we got to the entrance I stopped. My body felt heavy.

"Bro, come on!" Maj called. But I couldn't make my mind work. Then I heard a female scream come from the cave.

My mind went into overdrive. I shot past everyone into the cave. After a few minutes of running, I could hear voices come from around the bend in the cave.

"Looks like you picked the wrong cave to sleep in, Rat." A man sneered.

"You know we can't let you leave here alive, right?" Another sneered.

"Come on you freaks! Get some if you dare!" That came from a fiery female that I knew all too well.

When I rounded the corner I was going so fast I had to run on the side of the wall to keep from hitting it face first. I got to the ground and saw the group.

Three men, all wearing the cloaks from Laughing Coffin. They were standing over a girl, wearing a brown cloak. Her hood was pulled back and she had a cut on her cheek. She was laying down and holding her arm like she had been cut there too.

She had been paralyzed.

Her golden brown eyes were flaring with anger, and she was staring at the head guy with disgust.

"So fiery!" one of them chided.

"I like it when they try to fight back," another said. I stomped forward loudly so they could hear.

"Then you're gonna love me, pal," I said.

All three of them spun around. When two of them saw me, they got wide-eyed. But the guy standing in front of Argo wasn't phased. Argo herself was just staring at me, shocked.

"Back away from the girl. Nice and easy," I ordered. The guy in front of Argo flashed a wild, wicked grin at me when I tried to be tough.

"You did a sloppy job of getting rid of us, Demon," the guy closest to Argo said, trying to get to me. I saw Argo start to yell at him. I pleaded her not to, but someone else beat her to it.

"HIS NAME IS BLUR!"

The voice came from behind me. The one talking was Peyton.

"If you're gonna call him anything, use his real name. Blue Blur, or Flastor," Rena said.

All at once all of my friends flanked my sides. The other two members regained themselves and stood up straight.

"He is too much like us to have such an innocent name," one of the guys called.

"He is nothing like you, monsters," Willow shot.

I held my hand up to stop them. I stared the one closest to Argo down. I knew there was only one way this could go.

"A duel," I said. Everyone looked at me. "You and me. To the end."

The creep sneered at me. "And if I win?"

"Then I will be dead and you go free," I said, calmly. Everyone tensed. A shine came from Argo's eye.

"You idiot!" Maj said to me. I shot him a look, pleading with him to shut up. I had a plan, but it was stupid risky. Luckily, he caught on.

"You that eager to add to your body count? Blue Demon," the guy shot. I didn't flinch.

"You are threatening someone I care about. Now draw your blade and fight," I followed my own command and drew Tyrfing.

I made a point to be flashy and spun as I drew. When I did, I tossed a Corridor Crystal to Maj. He caught it and stashed it.

The guy grinded at me, and his eyes flashed with excitement.

"I see now," I was worried he saw the crystal, but it was something else. " Aw, that's adorable. The Demon and The Rat. A perfect fit." He drew his own blade and readied himself. "I'll take great pleasure in cutting you down in front of her. Then I will move on to her and your friends."

"Then come get some, freak," I stared them all down, fully ready to defend Argo with my life.

There was no duel window, no countdown. One slip up. And I would be dead.

Almost simultaneously, we shot to each other. He came at me low, like the first guy that came at me during the raid.

"You are all predictable!" I shot. This caused him to hesitate for a second.

I spun fast to the left. When I did, I activated the skill, Sonic Leap. A powerful charging strike. But, instead of aiming at him. I aimed at his sword that was level with me now. I added as much power to my swing and sliced upward, shattering his sword to pieces.

"Corridor: Open!" Maj commanded.

In front of my now disarmed and disoriented opponent, a corridor to the prison shimmered into existence. I used his momentum to shove him through the corridor. I turned to face the remaining two.

They were staring at me like I had just slapped both of them. Finally one regained his voice.

"You-. You cheated!" He shot. I scoffed at him

"All is fair in a death game," I said.

They tried to move on Argo, but they were intercepted by Willow and Peyton, who had gotten behind them. Rena was helping Argo get away from the fight.

I dashed to them. Austin appeared next to me, wielding a wicked looking Katana, running with me.

I ran to the guy on the left that was locking blades with Willow. When I got next to them, she deflected his sword and arms up. I swung over his head and cut both of his hands cleanly off. He sank to his knees in surrender.

I held my sword point to him and looked at Austin and Peyton. They subdued their opponent as well. They looked at me with so much determination, I couldn't help but grin slightly.

"You guys have been practicing, huh?" I said.

They both smiled and nodded to me. Austin shoved his blade under the guy's throat to get him to stand up. I looked at my own prisoner.

"Get up. I'm sick of looking at your face," I said. He looked up at me, hatred in his eyes.

"You know? You killed my brother and friends..." I hesitated, panic swelling inside me. "It makes me sick, you standing over me like you're so high and mighty."

I lost my breath. My brain shut down and I was just standing there.

Maj came up behind him and picked up him by his shirt collar.

"If you cared about them that much then you would have told them to retreat or yield to survive. But you didn't. That's your own fault. Not my brothers', jackass," Maj said, hauling the guy to the portal.

I shook my head to regain my thoughts. As soon as the remaining two were through the portal and it dissipated, I let out a huge sigh. I swiped to the right and sheathed my blade. For a moment, I was just standing there.

I felt movement behind me. When I turned, Argo was standing there, looking down. I scratched my face, not really sure what to say.

"Um... He-," Argo cut me off my rushing forward and wrapping her arms around me. She buried her head in my chest.

"You... Stupid... Idiot," She said, exhausted. The only thing I thought to do was wrap my arms around her. We just stood there for a minute. Then I found my words.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm sorry that I did what I did." I could feel her tremble a small bit. "I'm sorry that I left you after that. I shouldn't have."

I put my hand on the back of her head.

"I want to tell you," I took a breath. "That, if you will have me, I will not leave your side like that again. I will fight for you, with you, and by you. Now until the end."

We stood there for a minute. Then, Argo spoke.

"And I want to tell you," She looked up to me. She had tears streaming down her face. "That I will always be with you. Through the good, the bad, and the ugly. And I will stand with you, next to you, and behind you with everything you do."

We stood looking at each other for a minute. Her golden brown eyes were dark like she hasn't slept since the raid.

"How much sleep have you gotten?" I asked.

"I haven't," She said, smiling.

Then she got up on her toes and kissed me. We stayed like that for what felt like an eternity. Until Maj cleared his throat. I looked at him and smiled for the first time in a month.

"Sorry," I said. I looked at Argo, still smiling. "You wanna go hang for a bit? I know a cool place on 22 that is really nice,"

Argo just stared at me like I was a ghost. Then her eyes began to water.

"Sure... Sounds good," She said, smiling.

I offered my hand to her. She took it and got close to me. I turned to everyone.

"Guys. Next get together we plan. I'm picking the place," I said. Everyone smiled at me. With Argo at my side, we all walked out of the cave for what we hoped was the last time.

4

When we got back to the main town of floor 70, Argo and I said goodbye to the others. We all made plans to meet up later, but for now, I just wanted to be with Argo for a while.

While we made our way to the plaza, I saw a familiar group of people. They were all sitting at a restaurants outdoor seating, looking like they were having fun.

"Hey, hold up a second," I said to Argo. I walked up to the group of people. When I did they all had mixed emotions. But most of them were confused. I smiled at them.

"Hey, guys," I said, raising my hand. "I wanted to apologize for today. And offer to split the Col I got from Jugo with you all."

All of their mouths were hanging open. One of them spoke up.

"Um... What?"

"I clearly wasn't in a good state to be fighting a field boss today. And I kinda hogged a lot of the Col from the fight since I ruined the plan and rushed forward. So I wanted to make up for it by giving it to you all." I said, opening my menu.

I started to send trade requests to them all to split the Col when the guy that said something stood up. He looked like he was older than me, maybe late 20s.

He walked up to me, just trying to read me. Then he saw Argo behind me. He must have put two and two together and smiled. Which was a rarity for me when it wasn't one of my friends.

"Are you happy?" He asked. I was shocked at the question. But I grinned at him.

"I can't describe what I'm feeling right now. But..." I looked back to Argo, who was smiling at me. "I guess happy is the best word for it." I smiled back at her.

The guy patted my shoulder. Like a father would to a son.

"As long as you are out of your funk. Then that's all we can ask for..." He smiled at me. "Welcome back, Blue Blur."

I nodded at him, faced his group, and waved to them. They all smiled and waved back.

I turned to Argo and offered my hand. She took it and we made our way to the teleport gate. When we got there, we gave the command, "Teleport: Coral!"

Light enveloped us and we were transported to the main town of floor 22.

When we got to 22. I unequipped my sword. I wouldn't be needing it here.

Floor 22 was almost like a break in the fight. It had almost no monsters on it and took only 3 days to beat when we were here.

The entire floor was full of either woods or lakes. So it was perfect for me. It reminded me of where I went camping so long ago. It was the only place that ever made me feel truly calm in Aincrad.

I walked with Argo to a hill outside of the main town of the floor, Coral. When we got to the top, Argo gasped.

The hill was very tall. Almost like a small mountain.

It had a view of a lake that was surrounded by trees on all sides, except for the side the hill was on. When the setting sun hit the lake, it made it sparkle. And the lake was so calm, it made a perfect reflection of its surroundings.

On top of the hill, a lone tree stood. The tree was tall and had branches that were high enough for someone to sit under it, and they stretched out enough to block out direct sunlight. but still short enough as to not block out the sky entirely. I walked Argo to the tree and leaned on it.

"I found this place when we were leveling here," I said, looking over the lake. "Literally, when we found out there wasn't even a field boss on this floor, Maj and I just waited here until we got the call to raid the floor boss."

Argo laughed slightly.

"Sounds about like you two. As soon as you hear there is no work to be done, you kick your feet up," She walked forward to take in the view. The light reflecting off of the lake seemed to dance around her. And her blonde hair was flowing slightly in the breeze.

While she was taking in the view, I sank to the ground. I stretched and yawned. Argo turned to me.

"So..." She still seemed nervous. Like I would still freak out at the wrong word. "What do you want to do?"

"Well, for starters I'm gonna take my own advice and take a nap," I said, patting the spot next to me. "Every time I come here. It feels like my troubles just... Flow out of me." Argo smiled and walked to me.

But instead of sitting next to me and leaning on the tree. She sank to the ground and basically laid on me. Her head was resting on my shoulder, next to my head.

As soon as she got comfortable, her breathing grew steady and she started to snore softly. I smiled and wrapped my arm around her.

"Sleep well, girl," I said. My own eyes grew heavy and I fell asleep.

For the first time since the raid. I slept soundly with no nightmares at all.

END PART 5


	6. Aincrad 6: Sleeping Warriors

1

It's been 2 months since Laughing Coffin's annihilation. Majiku and I came to a unanimous decision that if the front needed us for a boss raid, then they could come get us.

So we settled down... Or at least, our definition of settled down. Majiku started hanging out with the girl, Rena more. They really hit it off after she got over the fact that we all almost died. They spent at least 4 days out of the week together. Whenever she didn't have guild responsibilities, they were together. I was happy for him. Maj needed to find a good girl in his life. Rena seemed nice. I had the chance to sit with the two. They mocked each other, had goofy fights over little things that had no meaning to whatever the conversation was. More importantly, Maj was happy.

When I left the front I was immediately recruited by Argo to help with her info gathering. I had no complaints. I got to spend my entire day with Argo. After the deal with Laughing Coffin, I couldn't ask for anything better. I helped her test hunting spots, complete quests, try the new foods of the front, good or not. More importantly, it felt like I was doing real good for others. It was also fun when someone felt like they were cheated and challenged me to a duel to make up for it. Loser paid for the info.

"You clearly don't know who this is huh?" Argo sneered. Most of the time people wouldn't recognize me because I wouldn't wear my signature blue coat unless I fought. Almost always I was just wearing the black, long-sleeved shirt that I wore under my coat. Most people would say,

"I don't give a flying crap who this is, fight me or pay up." Argo just lowered her head, still smiling.

"Have it yer way slick, kick his ass babe." She said, patting my shoulder.

"Aye aye, captain," I smiled and stepped forward.

I opened my Player Screen and equipped my coat and sword. I half expected the guy to yield after that, but some just lived under a rock. He attacked and I just stood in one spot. Eventually he would leave himself wide open and I ended the duel with a clean hit to the chest.

"No fair, you can't have a front-runner fight your battles." He complained.

"Cry me a river, you lost fair and square. Pay the lady" I replied.

"Screw that I ain't paying that bi-" I cut him short by dashing next to him. To the outside person, it appeared like I just appeared next to him.

"Choose your next words very carefully friend. I'm and ex-front-runner. I have all the time in the world to make your life a nightmare," I said, calmly. "Now, are you gonna pay the lady for her time? Or are we gonna have a problem?" He shuddered.

"I'll uh... I'll go ahead and pay the lady," He produced the 100 Col he owed.

"Good call my friend, have a good one!" I took the Col and tossed it to Argo. I half expected when this stuff happened we would get ambushed outside of town. But we were left alone.

Pretty much since then Argo and I were always together. Hanging out, gathering Intel, helping low-level players get geared to fight on the front lines. I even offered to train Austin and Peyton so they could fight on the front if they wanted.

"I think I am good. I really enjoy working at Liz's shop!" Peyton told me.

"Yea and I think I'll leave the ass kicking and making grown men piss their pants to you bro," was Austin's reply. It was fine with me. Like I told every person that we helped get to the front. If your whole heart is not in the fight, do not fight on the front-lines.

Literally, if I were to actually die in this world, I couldn't ask for a better scenario. But thinking like this also made me think of my promise. My promise to get Argo and everyone else out of here.

I thought about all of this while sitting on top of our nameless hill on floor 22, gazing over a lake, with Argo leaning on my shoulder. She must have sensed that my mind was not here.

"Whatcha thinkin' about?" She asked.

"A little bit of everything," I said. "My head is literally everywhere right now I couldn't grasp a single thought," I said, looking over to the lake. Argo giggled.

"Sounds about like you, soon as we get comfortable somewhere you clock out," She chided.

"Say's the one that can literally fall asleep in a half a second." I shot back.

Argo laughed, thinking about the multiple times she's just passed out on me.

"Hey, you got the new papers ready for the month?" I always tried to keep up with her work. Between the two of us, the quality of her Intel has nearly doubled.

"Oh, yea! I nearly forgot." Argo pulled out the latest issue of the Weekly Argo, the newspaper that she keeps updated. She held it up for us. Front and center. Kirito, dual wielding, charging at a floor boss. I grabbed the edge to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

"What in the actual hell is he doing?" I said.

"He took on the 74th-floor boss by himself," Argo explained.

"I see that!" A side thought occurred, "remind me to laugh at Asuna later." I looked closer to make sure I wasn't seeing things, but there it was. He was wielding a black sword in his right hand, and a blue sword in the left.

"What I want to know is when in the hell did dual wielding become a thing? I want it! How do we-" Argo cut me off by bursting into laughter.

"Seriously, boys and their skills. Sadly I looked into it. It's a unique skill. He is the only one that has it."

"Damn lucky son of a-" She put her hand over my mouth.

"Keep reading slick, he's been busy." So I did. I read on that after he revealed his skill, he challenged the commander of the KoB, Heathcliff, to a duel. The reward was letting Asuna have some leave from the guild.

"Seriously? Can't they just give her some time off? We have been busting ass for 2 years now," I said.

"I agree. The KoB is pretty far stuck up their butts sometimes. But that's not the juicy part." Argo gestured to a section at the bottom of the page.

It explained that since Kirito lost, he became a member of the KoB. On his first day of official training, an undercover member of the now destroyed Laughing Coffin attempted to kill him. Kirito was able to overpower him and kill him after Asuna came and cured Kirito of paralysis.

Reading that LC members are still running around just irritated me.

"They just can't roll over and die, can they? Have we heard from them after this?" I asked, about to send Kirito a message. Argo smiled wildly.

"Oh, I think Kii-boy will be fine. Word has it that he and Asu got married, and are now living here on 22."

"Well, that answers that then." They seemed to be living happily. So what did that mean for the front? How long would it take us to get out now?

"Stop thinking about the front. If they need you, they will message you, okay?" She said poking my face. "Don't try to hide it, your eyebrows knit slightly when you think too hard." Damn, she had me backed into a corner.

"Yeah? Well, your face turns cherry red when I do this," I lifted her chin up so I could kiss her. Even after all of this time it still made me feel warm. We pulled away and sure enough, her cheeks were the same color as a ripe apple.

"Touche, Blue Blur, touche." Argo smile, laid her head back on my shoulder, and passed out. I leaned back on the tree and did the same.

After an hour I opened my eyes. The sun was setting on the horizon. I decided we should start to head back to the inn we were both staying at. I poked Argos face.

"Hey wake up. We gotta go back." Argo lifted her eyes, but almost as soon as they fluttered open, they fluttered shut again.

"Carry me?" She asked.

To most people, that would be a lazy request. But I knew that she had been working really hard on the info for the latest floor to get it ready to sell. I caught her up at 3 AM once when I was going out to do some late night leveling to keep myself in shape. I kneeled down.

"Hop on," I said, helping her get situated on my back. As soon as she found a comfy position on my back she started snoring softly. I smiled and made my way to town.

After a short hike to town, we made it to the inn. As I walked in I got funny looks from people. Some looked concerned, a group of girls just giggled. I nodded to them, playing around.

"Ladies," As soon as I said that Argo lifted her hand up to my face and flicked me.

"Jesus, you're not asleep?" I said, extremely surprised. Argo smiled sleepily and her arm went limp. "Oh my god, did you just sleep-flick me?" This made the group of girls laugh. I rolled my eyes and continued walking. "You are a piece of work, woman." Argo smiled again.

I carried her up the stairs and into her room. I sat down at the edge of the bed.

"Ok, sleeping beauty, onto the bed you go," I laid down on my side to get Argo situated. After she was on her back, I went to get up and pull the covers over her. But sleep Argo must have had other plans. She lunged and grabbed me, and started pulling me down.

"Holy crap," I said as I tumbled next to her on the bed.

As I rolled over to face her, expecting her to be awake. She pulled herself close and continued to sleep soundly. If I tried to wiggle even a small amount, she would tighten her grip on me.

"Fine, fine, you win turd." I settled in and fell asleep.

2

I woke to hear knocking on the door.

"Hello? Flastor? Argo? Are you there?" A familiar voice called from the other side.

I got up groggily after prying myself from Argo's sleep grip. Sunlight streamed into the room from the rising sun. Who the heck is waking me up so dang early?

I got to the door and opened it, what I saw took a minute to process. Kirito and Asuna, Austin and Peyton, Majiku and Rena. Willow was there too, although she looked troubled.

"Uh... Hey everybody! What brings... All of you here?" I asked, looking around at them. Austin smiled wickedly.

"Busting you apparently. Long night buddy?" He asked glancing over my shoulder at the still sleeping Argo.

"Something like that," I said, wiping the sleep out of my eyes. I turned to Argo, "Argo! Wake up. We have... A lot of company,"

She groaned and rolled over to face away. I walked over to her and rolled her onto her back, her mouth hung open slightly. I poked her cheek.

"Wake up, we have stuff and things to do."

"Uuuhh, five more minutes," Argo groaned, I could hear all of them snickering behind me.

"Argo, Majiku brought this cute German Shepherd puppy! Come here Fido." Argo lunged at me and wrapped her legs around me to keep off of the ground.

"For the love of all things Holy keep it away!" Argo shouted. She buried her head in my shoulder. When she realized there was no dog, she looked up confused.

"Morning! Sleep OK?" I said, gesturing to our guests. "We have some visitors."

The others filed into the room. Argo unlatched from me, her face red with embarrassment.

"Why do you scare me like that? I hate dogs," Argo grumbled.

"If you can name another way to wake you up then I'm all ears," was my comeback to that.

Everyone laughed, including me and Argo.

"So guys, what brings you here?" I dreaded the answer, waiting to hear the 'time to go back to the front' speech, but Asuna spoke up.

"Kirito is going after this giant fish here on 22. Maj told us that you both grew up fishing and we thought you would like to come," she wasn't wrong. Up until I was maybe 18, every summer was spent fishing with my grandpa. Maj smiled, he was thinking the same thing.

"I can't pass up a fishing trip." I turned to Argo and offered a hand, "You in?" She smiled, took my hand, and got up.

"Sounds like a blast to me, you can tell me all of your fish stories," Argo said, rising from the bed.

"And boy do we have some, there was one time, when-," Maj started

"Save it for the lake man. We have plenty of good ones," I said, smiling.

We got to the lake and all sat around the same blanket that we did back in front of Liz's shop.

We waited for the guy that Kirito was gonna fish with. Apparently, this fish is so big, they will need to switch when he hooks it, so Kirito can real it in. And I thought my stories were wild. As we sat I couldn't help but notice Willow just sitting, looking down at her sandwich in front of her. While the other girls talked I motioned to her.

"Hey, whats up? Having fun?" I asked. She looked up, her eyes were full of sorrow.

"I've been thinking... Of home," Willow said sadly. "Look how far we still are. 26 floors." She took a shaky breath, I tapped Argo for backup. "And even when we get back, what happened to our old lives? Will the same people be waiting for us?" She had a fair point. 2 long years here. A lot could change. Argo left it to me but had her hand on my back for reassurance.

I had a flash of wisdom, so I spoke before I lost it.

"I know how you feel. There was a lot going on in the real world when I get trapped. My sister had to have life-saving surgery, I don't know if she made it or not. A friend of my Dad's got into a really bad car accident and he was fighting for his life. I can't be there to back him up." Willow started to look worried, so I recovered fast. "But that's not a good way to think while we are here. Instead of saying 'what if', you say 'I will'. I will see my sister again. I will see my Dads friend again. I will get back to the real world. That's how you should think, you will get back to the real world and you will see whoever is waiting for you on the other side."

Everyone was staring at me. It was like Déjà vu. I waited for Willow to protest since I am horrible with words. But she just stared at me.

Kirito spoke up.

"It's always best to give yourself something to fight for. That in turn, naturally makes your blade faster and stronger. If you hold doubt, you're moves grow slack and your blade dulls. Keep your head up. We will make it through." He was way better at this than I was. This was enough to make Willow regain herself.

She smiled. "You're right, I can't give up."

Argo took the opportunity to fully lighten the mood. She patted my back,

"Hey, wanna do the thing?" She asked. I smiled and nodded.

I opened my inventory and brought out a lute that I learned to play. Majiku smiled,

"Grandpa still rubbing off on you, huh?"

"Well he did play on the TV," I said, smiling.

Argo looked at me stunned. "He did? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why would I? He only sat on the TV and played the guitar." Maj and I laughed.

"Ha! Classic grandpa joke," He said. Argo shoved me and everyone laughed.

"Seriously though, you can play?" Willow asked.

I nodded. "It helps that there's a system for playing. It was easy to learn here. And it's even better, check this out."

Argo had come up with this song that is based on how we met. It won't be winning any awards. But it was special to her, so I gladly learned it and helped get a tune for it.

I started strumming. Then Argo sang.

"I woke up in this strange place. Where the ground below, is the sky above. Where the ring of swords, is my nightly serenade. For the longest time, I was deep in the dark. I had no one for comfort... I am. A Sleeping Warrior."

I started to hum in tune with the lute. Argo continued to sing.

"In a flash, you came to me. You brought with you, not a care in the world. You showed your strength. And offered your heart. You vowed with your life, to defend my own. Until the end of your days. You raised me up and stood with me. My Sleeping Warrior."

I hit the side of the lute for a drum effect and kept humming in tune.

"We stand and fight. We laugh and cry. We face all our hardships, with the will of fire. Together as one, we forge on ahead. We stand shoulder to shoulder. We are, the Sleeping Warriors."

Argo smiled and looked at me as I finished the tune. Everyone looked at us, stunned.

"What? Just cause I'm a swordsman and she's a Rat. It doesn't mean we can't do other stuff." Argo smacked my chest and I grunted loudly. Both of us smiling. Then applause came from the crowd that had grown around us. Everyone was talking at once. Asking when I learned to play and complementing on how good Argo sounded.

An older guy came up and patted Kiritos shoulder.

"You ready to catch this beast?" He asked. Kirito got up and nodded.

"Let's do this thing," Kirito said.

The next few minutes were a blur, mostly because I couldn't stop laughing. The fish that Kirito and the fisherman, Nishida, were going after was actually a mid-level boss monster that chased Kirito around for a bit until Asuna took care of it. We all were having a good time. Until Maj, Rena, Kirito, Asuna, Willow, and I got a message from the commander of the Knight of the Blood Oath.

3

"What the hell, Heathcliff?" I groaned laying on the grass in front of the KoB HQ, Argo sitting next to me. "Can't we all just chill for one day without a dire message to ruin the fun?" I waited for Argo to complain too, but she just looked concerned.

"I bet 1000 Col I know what he wants," Argo said, grimly. "Time to raid the 75th-floor boss."

"You're kidding? And you think they need ALL of us to be there?" Argo wouldn't meet my gaze. I leaned up and wrapped my arm around her. "What's wrong? You have that look of impending doom."

"Don't even joke about that," Argo said, seriously. "Even I don't know anything about this boss. No one can get in and get back out. The door seals when the party goes in. And I assume it's an Anti-Crystal zone too, so no warping out." I understood why she was freaking out.

"Look, with all of us there, it will be fine." Argo wasn't convinced, so I tried to strike a deal. "You wait on 47. When I get back, all the cake you can eat." This made her perk up.

"All I can eat, plus a fishing trip," Argo said. I smiled and kissed her cheek.

"You got it," I said. I could tell Argo was still holding back a question. "Out with it then. What is it?" I asked, poking her forehead.

She shoved my hand away and laughed slightly, then she turned downcast.

"So, listen, this is kinda personal. How much Col would I have to pay to get your real name?" Argo asked.

I was stunned. I never even thought about it. I haven't heard my real name in 2 years maybe even longer than that since I was rarely called by name. I almost forgot about it.

I smiled. "How about an even exchange?"

Argo blushed, then smiled. "Square deal. My name is Teresa Luna. I'm 19."

"That... Is an epic name. I can't compare to that." She pouted, waiting for my answer. "My name is Drake Nofsinger, I'm 21."

Argo's eyes got wide... "Nofsinger? Like the road?"

She was cut off my Kirito and Asuna walking up to us. They both looked shot, and Asuna looked like she had been crying.

"It's time to go," Kirito said. I turned to Argo to ask her what she meant, but she had turned away.

"Better get going, you have cake to buy me later," Argo said, hiding her tears. I turned to Kirito and Asuna and motioned that I'll be right there. They nodded and walked away. I faced Argo and put my hand on her head.

"I'm coming back, don't you believe anything otherwise. You hear me?" She nodded, but still wouldn't look at me. "See you on 47. OK?" She nodded again. I got up and walked to Granzam to teleport to the front lines once again.

When I got to floor 75 it was packed. All high-level players were called to battle. The entire square was full of heavily armored players, all trying way too hard to look intimidating. I noticed Majiku was standing with Rena, Willow, Austin, and Peyton. I walked up to them and faced Austin and Peyton, slightly concerned.

"Hey, guys? Are you in the raid too?" They both shook their heads.

"Oh no. We just came to wish you luck! People that were coming into the shop were saying this boss might be a doozy," Peyton said, trying to hide the worry in her eyes. I looked at Austin and he was the same way.

"Be careful man. If something were to happen, your sister would kill me," Austin said, trying to kid around. A couple of dudes wandered up to us, clearly trying to cause trouble.

"Man, they really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Letting nobodies like you join," He said, looking down at me. I looked at Maj, thinking is this guy really that stupid? Then I realized neither him nor I were wearing our equipment. I smiled and turned to the guy.

"Man I know. They found us kicking ass outside of town. They figured we should come compensate for your massive ego." This made him turn red.

"You little. I'll have you know, I am the leader of the 4th raiding squad of the Holy Dragon Alliance. And the highest level in my whole party, level 80." Maj took the opportunity.

"Oooh, level 80! Flastor, when did we hit 80?" He said, emphasizing my name and equipping his crimson coat and massive sword.

"Jesus it's been so long, Majiku," I said, putting equal emphasis to his name. I equipped my own coat and Tyrfing. "Was that 3 months ago?"

"More like 4, man. Get your head on straight," Maj said. The guy looked like someone had slapped him in the face. He struggled for words.

"Cannon Brothers?" Was all he could manage. We both looked at him and smirked.

"Cannon Brothers," I said genuinely, for the first time ever.

I couldn't very well make fun of it after I heard Argo had spread the name to make us look cooler. Everyone in earshot turned and gawked at Maj and me.

With us arriving, that meant that the top 4 players of SAO were going to be fighting in the same raid for the first time in months. Some were happy, some were worried. Either way, the point was made.

The guy just walked away like he never saw us.

"Dumbass," I said under my breath. I turned and Austin and Peyton were both frowning. "Guys, we will be fine. I promise you," I reassured.

"He's right," I was shocked that Rena spoke up, she jabbed her finger into Majikus chest, "I'll be there to watch this guys back."

Willow spoke up next, walking up next to me. "And I told Argo before I came that I would watch this Idiots back." She jabbed her thumb to me when she said, idiot.

"Idiot? What the hell was that for?" I complained.

Willow smiled. "I was only quoting what Argo said."

"... OK, that sounds fair." I said as we all laughed.

Then the Teleport gate shimmered. A tall man with long silver hair stepped off. He was dawned in blood red armor from neck to toe and wielded a shield that was half his height. He was flanked by 2 men on each side of him. No doubt about it. The commander of the KoB had arrived.

"This is it," I said softly.

Austin fist bumped me. Peyton gave me a hug instead of a fist bump.

"Be back faster than Asuna," I said, making fun of her nickname. In front of Heathcliff, he opened a corridor to the boss room. The air shimmered and revealed a cave. As we walked through the portal, the air shifted. It became heavy with dread.

"Jeez, what a jolly place," Maj said, standing next to me. Rena stood next to him, gripping his sleeve, but her face was filled with determination. To my left, Willow was facing forward. She looked concerned.

"I know Argo said to watch my back," I said. "But remember, I got yours too."

She smiled and regained herself. "We got this."

"Damn right we do!" I cheered to try to ease the tension.

The commander drove his shield into the ground, getting everyone's attention.

"This is it," he said. "The Knights of the Blood Oath will be up front, blocking its attacks. The rest, try to figure out its attack pattern and flank it." Simple and straightforward, I like it. With that, he turned and opened the door. As it opened I couldn't see anything inside. It was just a black room. We all readied our weapons.

"We are all going to hang back, as soon as we are in the door, flank to the left," I said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

Heathcliff raised his sword. "Forward to battle!"

Everyone rushed in. When we broke the threshold of the door, we all turned hard left. What I saw in the room was the horrifyingly awful...

Giant empty room...

As the last of the party swarmed in, sure enough, the door disappeared. We stood at the edge of the room, waiting for the boss to appear. But there was nothing. And it was starting to freak me out.

My senses were on full blast. There was a crackling sound, but I couldn't narrow down where it was coming from. Then, from the center of the room, I heard Asuna shout.

"Up there!"

I looked up. And there, was the horrifying, awful boss. It was a long skeleton centipede, with scythes for arms. When the name showed up, I nearly had a panic attack.

The Skull Reaper.

4

The Reaper unlatched from the ceiling and began to fall. My fear of spiders for some reason took over and I said.

"That thing has way too many legs, and two too many eyes!"

"Spread out! Get away from the center!" Heathcliff said as the giant monster fell from the ceiling. Everyone scrambled from the center, except for two guys, who were frozen in fear.

"Get out of there!" Kirito yelled. That snapped them out of it and the ran full speed.

As soon as the boss landed it sped up to them so fast I could barely follow it. It swiped once and hit both of the guys. They screamed and went flying. When Asuna tried to catch one, they shattered.

"Killed in one hit? You are FREAKING KIDDING ME!" Maj roared the last part like the Reaper might hang its head in shame and say sorry.

"I should have stayed in bed," I said. As if it heard me the boss rushed us. The way is scuttled seriously freaked me out. It held up its scythe to swipe. "Crap, Maj, block!"

Majiku held up his sword and braced. I stepped in front of him, lined up my sword with his and did the same. As the boss hit, it was like trying to stop a freight train going at full speed. I groaned as we slid on the ground. We kept our balance, but we were both losing health rapidly.

I gritted my teeth and shouted to Maj, "Deflect."

He got the message. In sync, we planted our left foot and spun, putting all of our power into deflecting upwards. Somehow, we managed to get it away from us. We both sank to one knee. I looked at my health. 45% gone.

"What the hell is that? Some BS is what that is." Maj said between breaths. I pulled out a potion and tossed it to him, we both drank to full health. Willow and Rena ran next to us, weapons ready. Then I saw the boss make its way to another player.

"Dodge!" I yelled.

It was too late, the boss had bared down on him. Right as the boss swung, Heathcliff materialized next to the dazed player, blocking its scythe. Then the other Scythe started to swipe. To that side, Kirito, who was dual wielding his black and blue swords, and Asuna, blocked that swipe together.

"Me and Asuna will deal with the front! Everyone else, flank it and attack!" Kirito shouted. I looked at my party. They were waiting for my word.

"You heard him, find his soft spot and slash the crap out of it!" I yelled at everyone in earshot. "Squash that freaky bug!"

My party and a few others dashed to the left side of the Reaper. Willow was first to strike, slashing 6 times, jumping over it, slashing 3 more times as she flew, then landing and slashing 4 more times. That was nice, adding her own twist to what is normally the stationary Scimitar Skill, Legion Destroyer.

Rena was next, she wielded a katana. She dashed to the legs and slashed so fast I didn't even see her unsheathe her sword. She slashed 3 times, then twice more, the system took over and added 4 more hits to it. The Katana Skill, Washu.

"That's my girl!" Maj cheered, he stepped up to swipe at the Reapers legs. 2 fast swipes, then 2 more powerful swings delivered with the Two-Handed Skill, Cyclone. When he finished his spin his sword was level to me as I was running up. "Going up?"

"Top floor, fast as you can!" I said, raising my sword my sword. I stepped on and he launched me up.

As I approached the monster's spine I dug my blade in, still traveling up. I reached its head and spun. When I was level with the back of the Reapers head, I unleashed the most powerful skill I knew. The ultimate One-Handed Skill, Nova Ascension, but sped up 10 times its normal speed. After I hit 11 times I drove my sword into its skull. Then I planted both feet on it and pushed as hard away as I could. As I flew through the air I righted myself to land on my feet. I skidded to a stop, digging my feet into the ground to slow down.

I looked up at The Reapers health, thinking we took off at least half of the first of 5 HP bars. Instead, we only got it down by maybe 15%.

"This is gonna be my whole day isn't it?" I moaned under my breath. I dashed back in to join the fray.

The battle continued to rage for 45 minutes. Kirito and Asuna, paired with Commander Heathcliff, were constantly keeping the monster busy. While everyone else wailed on it. Agil came flying in slicing clean through the Reaper with his ax. Klein delivered devastating blows to the underside.

All the while my party continued to land blow after blow of constant damage. It seemed like we weren't getting anywhere with it. Last I checked we had only gotten down to half of the 3rd health bar. 2 left.

The relentless onslaught continued.

Every so often a swipe would get by Kirito and Asuna and take out another player who wasn't fast enough. Every time someone went down I counted.

7...8...9...

How many were we going to lose?

Soon I got sloppy, just once. A swipe came flying in and I didn't have the footing to dodge.

"Crap," I said, holding up my sword to absorb some of the blow. I felt a hand on my back and another sword lined up with mine. It was curved and polished silver.

As the scythe hit, Willow and I went flying. Willow landed on her feet like she was a cat. I wasn't so graceful. I landed and rolled a few times until my back hit the wall.

"Freaking... Ow.." I groaned. Willow ran up, clearly in a panic, and threw me a healing potion.

"Are you OK? Drink, DRINK!" She ordered.

I didn't notice my health had fallen into the yellow, about to turn red. I uncapped the potion and downed it. As I did my health increased back to full.

"Jesus Christ. Do not scare me like that. Argo would have destroyed me if you died," Willow shot out. I was dazed for a moment.

"Yeah, uh huh," I muttered. I saw a flash behind Willow. "Duck!" I grabbed her and pushed her down flat to the floor. I readied my blade and deflected the scythe upwards. The boss scuttled around us, clearly more interested in what was in front of it.

Willow and I locked eyes.

"One for one we're even then," She said

"Ditto." I helped her up and rushed back to the fight.

Someone must have found a soft spot because when I looked at its HP the last health bar was being picked down.

"Advance!" I yelled. Everyone around obliged, unleashing skill after skill in a rainbow dance around the boss. Then the boss started to slow down.

"Keep going!" Majiku yelled. Without letting up we all slashed at the monster as fast and as hard as we could.

The HP bar turned yellow. I expected The Reaper to go wild. But it just sank to the floor.

"It's head! Go for the back of the head!" I yelled.

We all did, Rena slashed first. Willow followed behind her spinning as she slashed. Then Majiku and I drove our swords in all the way to the hilts. Majikus massive sword stuck out of the front of The Reapers freaky face.

With that, the monster fell. It started to glow. Then it shattered into floating crystals. Majiku and I sank to the ground, supporting each other with our backs. Our swords were sticking out of the ground, crossed in an X.

5

After about 10 minutes of resting, Klein spoke up.

"How many did we lose?" He asked grimly. Kirito responded by opening his menu and counting.

"... Fourteen of us died," He said, completely exhausted. Klein just hung his head.

"Fourteen, and we still have 25 more floors to go." Agil groaned, laying on his back.

Out of everyone that was fighting, the only one didn't look tired.

Commander Heathcliff, stood looking over his party. His HP still hovering just out of the yellow.

What is the deal with that guy?

How, even after all of that, is his health not in the yellow even in the slightest?

I remembered back to Kirito describing his duel with him. He said that the commander's move that turned the table was beyond the game's capabilities. As soon as I played that scenario in my head it hit me.

Was he outside of the game's boundaries? Was he an NPC? Protected by the system? An admin? Crap.

Before I could gather my thoughts, Kirito dashed to him. He raised his sword and it hit right in Heathcliff's face.

Or at least it would have if it didn't hit a purple hexagon first. A message popped over Heathcliff's head.

Immortal Object.

The same thing that popped up when something was hit that was protected by the system. Asuna was running behind Kirito, trying to stop him at first, then she was stunned.

"Commander Heathcliff. What is the meaning of this?" She asked.

"I got the answer to that one," Kirito said, sheathing his sword. "The reason the commanders HP never hits yellow is because he's protected by the system."

Everyone was paying attention now.

"You know something has always bugged me," Kirito went on. "Where was he? Where was he while we were all trapped her? Then it hit me," Asuna walked up next to him. "It's so simple that every kid knows it. There is nothing more boring than watching someone else play an RPG. Is there, Akihiko Kayaba?" There was an eerie silence over the room.

The commander spoke. "For my curiosity's sake, would you mind telling me how you figured it out?"

"The first time I knew something was up, was in our duel. That move you pulled. It was way too fast for any normal player," Kirito explained.

"Yes, I figured as much. But you were so fast, the only way I could win was to activate the System Assist Mod," Heathcliff nodded, looking down.

You dirty slimy no good cheat.

He looked around then locked eyes with Kirito. "Yes, I am Akihiko Kayaba. And now that my identity has been revealed, it should come as no surprise that I am the final boss on the 100th floor," everyone gasped. Asuna grabbed Kirito's arm.

"So the most powerful player in the game turns out to be the final boss. Kinda cliche don't you think?" Kirito said. He wasn't wrong. Pretty bogus given the situation if you ask me.

"Actually, I kinda like that angle. More importantly, I always assumed you would be the one standing before me at the end," Heathcliff explained. "You know dual wielding is a rare skill, awarded only to the player with the fastest reaction time. He is the Hero of this story."

"You callin' me slow you rat bastard?" I yelled, not helping the situation. But I wasn't gonna sit there and be called second best to my face.

One of the KoB knights behind Heathcliff lunged. As he did, Heathcliff opened his menu and hit a couple of buttons. The guy behind him stiffened, then fell over. He was paralyzing everyone.

"Maj, launch!" I yelled. I grabbed my blade and activated the charging skill, Vorpal Strike. Before I could fully activate it, my body froze in place. "Damn you. I'll tear you apart! You will be sorry!" I roared, trying to force my sword forward.

"So what's your plan? You going to kill everyone here and cover it up?" Kirito asked, holding the paralyzed Asuna.

"Oh god, no. That wouldn't be sporting of me," Heathcliff chuckled. "No I have a better idea, I'm going to go on ahead, I'll be waiting at the Ruby Palace. I feel bad leaving you like this. I've spent so much time building the Knights of the Blood Oath, and other elite players. Oh well, I'm sure you will reach me... Eventually," I was gonna skewer him if he kept talking down to us. "Before I go," Heathcliff drove his shield into the ground. "Kirito, I feel like you deserve a reward for uncovering my identity."

"What kind of reward?" Kirito asked.

"A duel, me and you to the end. Beat me and you clear the game. Oh, and my immortality will be turned off." I looked at Kirito, he had an exchange with Asuna. Then he got up and drew his swords. Maj spoke up,

"He's not seriously going to fight him? Is he?"

"Idiot, fall back!" I yelled. He didn't.

Kirito charged head first and unloaded on Heathcliff. Blow after blow, trying to wear him down. Heathcliff stabbed, Kirito crossed his swords and deflected. They were fighting so fast they kicked up a dust could. Kirito had a look in his eyes like pure, burning hatred. Like he was ready to skewer Kayaba the moment he had an opening. Maj shuffled next to me,

"You asked what you looked like when you went berserk?" He said, reminding me of a question I had asked him after the Laughing Coffin deal. He nodded his head to the fight, "That." I was stunned.

"Remind me to hug Argo when we get back. For staying with me," I said. To the right, I saw Asuna, somehow on her feet, and hobbling to the fight.

"Asuna! Get back!" I yelled. I squirmed against the paralysis. Then my sword started to glow dark blue. I realized that Vorpal Strike was still in mid activation. If the skill didn't cancel out, then the force of my sword must have built up tremendously by now.

Asuna didn't hear me. If she did, she didn't care.

Then I heard the sound of metal breaking. I turned, hoping to see that Kirito somehow broke the commander's shield. No such luck, Kirito's blue sword had shattered, leaving his left side wide open.

"Move, Kirito!" Majiku yelled. No good, Heathcliff brought his sword down. Then in a flash of white, Asuna was between them, taking the entire blow square in the chest.

"Asuna!" Willow and Rena both yelled. She crumpled to the ground and began to shimmer. Kirito holding her.

"No.. You aren't taking anyone else you bastard!" I felt the system lighten. I forced the skill to fully activate. When it did I shot forward faster than ever.

Heathcliff could only dodge as I gained my footing next to him

I swung wildly, landing 10 hits before he tried to hit me with his shield. I jumped, using his own shield as a springboard, and flipped over him. I was able to get a couple more blows on his shield before he knocked my sword out of my hand and kicked me back. The system paralysis took hold again.

"Damn you! You will be sorry for causing so much pain. So help me, you will pay!" I screamed, letting out all of the resentment I felt towards this man.

"You have heart, Flastor," Heathcliff said, grinning at me like he was a god. "You were a close second to Kirito for dual wielding, but this is not your fight." As if on cue, Kirito rose, replacing his blue sword with Asuna's rapier. Shards from a fallen player danced around him.

"Kick his ass Kirito, do it for everyone!" I tried to fire him up. It didn't work, his first swing was weak. "Kirito snap out of it!"

Heathcliff was done entertaining him. He swiped and knocked Kirito's black sword out of his hand. Then Heathcliff drove his sword into Kirito's chest.

"Kirito you are not going to see Asuna on the other side and say you failed are you?" I yelled. This made him twitch as he shimmered. "Fight you, idiot! FIGHT!" Kirito shouted in defiance and stabbed Heathcliff with Asuna's Sword.

Kirito stood there, then smiled. All at once Kirito and Heathcliff both shattered. The paralysis wore off. Everyone slowly got to their feet. Dazed. Then a female voice rang in the room.

"On November 7th, 2022. The game has been cleared. Repeat. The game has been cleared."

I looked at the ceiling. "You're... Kidding me?"

Epilogue) From the End. Back to the Beginning.

All at once a light enveloped me, It was like teleportation, but different. It felt like the login sequence that I felt so long ago, but backward. My mind returning to my body.

Then my vision went from white and peaceful, to dark and sinister. I was in a black void, not being able to see anything. It stayed like that for a few minutes.

"What the hell? What is this?" I said aloud. I tried to find light, but there was none.

Then it felt like an evil, dark veil shrouded over me.

"You're mine now, guinea pig," A man sneered. "Let's see what you have going on in that head of yours."

It felt like someone was poking my brain. Scraping away my thoughts. Slowly my memories began to fade. Names were leaving me, faces were being erased.

"Stop, leave me alone!" I felt my memories getting washed away.

Who was the dude in red? And the girl in purple? The couple?

Argos face began to blur,

"No, stop. DAMN YOU STOP!"I yelled, gripping the sides of my head in an attempt to keep my memories of Argo. In a rage I drew my sword and slashed at the darkness, trying to stop whoever was doing this.

A softer voice echoed through space, I could have sworn it was Kayaba.

"Let him go, Sugo. He is too strong for you to contain. Release him, or face even more consequences for your actions."

"You're dead. You can't tell me what to do anymore," The other male voice chided.

"You are playing a dangerous game, Nobuyuki Sugo. This one defied even me. You will face his wrath if you meddle with his memories any further," the softer voice warned.

"Get lost. You are interfering with my work," the other man's voice said. It felt like the darkness was suffocating me. Argos face was becoming less and less recognizable. Was her hair brown? Black?

"Very well Sugo, I warned you." It felt like someone had me by my back and was pulling me out of the crushing darkness. Then I was tossed into the light again, where I passed out.

End of Aincrad Arc.

Acknowledgement.

Hey everyone! Thank you if you made it this far! I had a lot of fun writing this story out. I fully intend on writing in events that took place during the Fairy Dance Arc. But I'm still debating on how I will go about doing it. Anyway, again I appreciate you giving this a read. Take care and keep an eye out for more!


	7. Alfheim 1: Memories of Nobody

I woke up on my back in a forest, feeling like my brain had just been picked apart by pliers. There were only a few things I could remember solidly.

My name is Flastor.

I'm 21 years old.

I'm a master swordsman.

I survived Sword Art Online.

Argo...

Who the hell is Argo? Why is she the only actual name I remember?

I remembered other people. A couple, standing next to each other. A girl with purple hair. Another girl with long red hair. And a tall, skinny guy wearing a red trench coat. But their faces were fuzzy like someone had smeared them.

I got up and stretched. As I did I realized I was hovering above the ground by a few inches.

"Wait, what the hell?" I flailed my arms, which caused me to tilt forward and slam my face into the ground. "Ow, what was that?" I said, trying to stand up without floating.

Suddenly a female voice came from behind me and nearly made me jump.

"Why are you in my territory, Imp?" I turned to see a beautiful elf. With long black hair, and a really long, wicked looking Katana strapped to her waist. I was hit by a hint of Déjà vu when I saw the sword. It was like I had seen one similar to it.

"Uh... I've been called many things. Imp is a first," I said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Don't play dumb. Why are you, an Imp, all the way in Swilvane, Sylph territory?" She demanded. Her hand hovered over her sword, like one false move, and she would cut me in two. "Speak! Are you a spy? A mercenary for the Salamanders?" My head throbbed.

On top of the fuzzy memories, this girl was shooting off of these words like I was supposed to know them. Salamanders, Sylphs, was she actually calling me an Imp? Like a genuine Imp? I held up my hands in surrender.

"Look, lady." Poor choice of words. Her sword materialized at my neck.

"Sakuya, leader of the Sylph race, watch your tone," She warned.

"Sorry, Sakuya, I have no idea what a Salamander is unless you're talking about the lizards. I have no Idea what a Sylph is or where I am. I barely know who I am," I tried to sound as genuine as I could. I played the card I didn't want to. "I'm from SAO, I was in Aincrad literally 5 minutes ago." Confusion washed over her face.

"In SAO? Five minutes ago?" She took her sword from my neck. "How is that possible? Why did you not wake with the others 2 months ago?"

1

Sakuya's last words hung.

"Two months? How could it have been two months?" I started looking around. I was hoping I was just having an extremely vivid nightmare. "I just got out. I was this room, and there were voices."

All of my thoughts became jumbled. On top of not remembering half of the people in my head, now I had lost almost two months worth of memory too. I doubled over.

"Uuhh. I don't feel so good," I groaned, putting my hands on my knees. Sakuya sheathed her sword and looked at me, half confused, half concerned.

"Maybe you should log out?" She asked. I literally laughed out loud

"You say that like it's possible," I realized where I was. "Is it?" I let myself hope for a minute. I swiped down with my right hand to open my menu.

Nothing. I tried again. I was getting frustrated and waved my hand up and down to get the menu to open.

"Oh come one you stupid-"

"Left hand," Sakuya said, looking at me like I was crazy.

I swiped my left hand down and the menu opened.

"Dumb," I groaned.

I navigated to the logout button. It wasn't grayed out, a good sign. I pushed it and a window popped up warning me that my avatar could be attacked since I was outside my territory. I don't care, I'm probably not coming back. I clicked it. What should have happened is I get put back in my real body. Instead... A whole lot of nothing. I instantly was filled with dread.

Before I could stop myself, I yelled, "God, DAMNIT!" Sakuya flinched. Like I was going to go berserk on something, or someone. I looked at her and calmed down. "Sorry. Just was really hoping that it would work." Sakuya's face softened.

"No. I'm sorry, that was probably a poor suggestion on my part. Most of the SAO survivors have woken up. But 300 of them are still asleep as if they are still trapped," Sakuya explained.

"Trapped here?" I asked. Sakuya shook her head.

"I know almost everything about this game, and I have been around since the beginning. Even before SAO was cleared. This is the first I have ever heard of an SAO survivor even being in Alfheim. Trapped or not," She said calmly. I sat down on the grass. holding my forehead.

"So, I'm the only one that hasn't woken up, but can still roam somewhere?" A faint memory surfaced from when I was in the dark room. "Does the name Nobuyuki Sugo ring a bell?" Sakuya thought for a moment.

"I'm afraid not. Is he a friend of yours?" I remembered his words.

"You are mine, guinea pig."

"Yea, I don't think so. I think he's the one that's keeping me here." A thought occurred, and I instantly shot to my feet. Sakuya nearly fell over.

"What?" She said, her hand over her sword again.

"Argo. Please tell me you know someone named Argo?" Please know her. Sakuya looked at me with wide dark green eyes.

"I'm sorry, but I do not." She was trying to read me.

"That sucks," I groaned, sinking back to the ground. "Now she is a friend. That much I know," I said, trying to hold onto that thought. Sakuya's face grew into a wild grin.

"Maybe a little more than a friend? Judging from the look on your face," She said, trying to cheer me up.

"Yeah," I sighed. My left cheek throbbed like it was about to get hit. Or like it has been hit before because of something I did. "Oooohhh no, no no no CRAP!" Her face still didn't come back, but I knew that if she found out I was still trapped somewhere for 2 months... Well, she has to be a wreck by now. "I need to get out. Like... Now," I said, getting up.

"I understand your want to leave," Sakuya said, walking to me, "But it's not that simple."

She opened her own window, which looked more like an admins console.

Sakuya tapped a few buttons then frowned.

"As I feared. Even I, who has almost the same credentials as a GM, cannot log you out," Her eyes widened. "Open your Character screen."

I did as she said. When I did I almost felt relieved. All of my stats from SAO were there. I was still level 96. But all of my items, except for my sword, were just lines of question marks.

Sakuya spoke up. "You said you are a fresh spawn right?" I nodded. "And yet you have these incredible stats." She pondered for a minute while I cleared my inventory of all of my hard earned, now useless, items. Then Sakuya appeared in front of me, uncomfortably close. "Come with me, Imp. I may have an idea on how to get you out."

"Um... Ok," I said, taking a half step back. "How?"

"First we need to get back to Swilvane. When I found you I was on the hunt for intruders." As if the forest heard her, it began to stir.

Sakuya and I drew our blades.

"Who goes there?" She demanded. 3 big guys in red armor stepped out of the shadows. They were all sneering at Sakuya like they just bagged a helpless rabbit. Their stares made me sick. Like I had seen hundreds of them before.

"Looks like we got a big catch today! Lady Sakuya, leader of the Sylph race." One said,

"Eugene will reward us big time for her death. We will be the heroes of the Salamander race." The other said. They said death like it was no big deal. It felt eerily familiar like I was in a situation similar to this. Rage was starting to boil within me.

I stepped in front of Sakuya,

"Who are you? Get out of the way, wimp." The taller of the three said. "We are on decent terms with the Imps, we would like to keep it that way. Unless you're a Renegade," He stepped forward and readied his broadsword.

I smiled, having a quick flash of my memory. I remembered sparring with the guy in red who had a sword twice the size of my opponent in front of me. Of course, that memory didn't stay long.

"What are you smiling at? You want to challenge me?" He asked mockingly.

Before he could utter another word, I dashed forward. But way faster than I meant.

"What the-" I cut him off by slicing upwards, cutting his hands clean off.

"You little." The second guy came at me. Running straight to me with his sword level.

"You're too slow!" I yelled, deflecting his stab to the left.

I grabbed his wrist and pulled him forward, then I cut his hands off. I planted my leg and flipped him over it. He crashed to his back. The third guy had flown up into the air.

Wait, how was he flying?

"Hey! Get back down here. I can't do that," I complained.

"What kind of Alfheim player can't fly?" He chided from the air. I was getting irritated.

Instead of flying, I leaped as high as I could. Unlike in SAO, I could move a lot faster and easier here. It was like my body was 10 times lighter. I got eye level with the guy in the air.

"Hi," I said.

"What the hell?" He shouted. He tried to bring his sword down on me. But I deflected it upwards and got his hand before he could recover.

I sailed back to the ground. All three guys had stumps for hands and were complaining about the number of potions it would take to heal them.

"Who the hell are you?" one of them shot.

I smiled. Another name of mine had surfaced.

"Flastor. They call me, The Blue Blur,"

2

I was sure I lost my mind now. Where the hell did I get the name, 'Blue Blur'? It made me sound like I was a smear of paint.

I knew I wasn't just making stuff up. I was given that name. By Argo. But why? I wasn't even wearing any blue. Just a black long-sleeved shirt and black pants.

The 3 red guys flew way as fast as they could. Worried I would actually kill them and they would lose their levels. Which I thought was a weird thought process.

I sheathed my sword and turned to Sakuya, who was just staring at me, shocked.

"How did you do that?" She asked. I shrugged.

"Sorry, I needed to let off some steam. I should have let you have some fun with them too," I said.

"No. I mean, how did you beat them without killing them?" She asked. "Judging from their gear, those were 3 high-level hunters from the Salamanders army. And you incapacitated all of them."

"I mean, they are people after all? Sure, they may be jerks. Why would I kill them?" For some reason, I felt really uncomfortable talking about me killing people. Realization washed over Sakuya's face.

"While that is noble of you, Flastor, right?" She sheathed her sword and took a light, but serious tone. "This place is not Aincrad or SAO. Players can die here and re-spawn just fine. If backed into a corner again, do not hold back."

I thought about it for a minute. I realized I did hold back that entire fight. My blows were all light because I was trying to not kill them.

"So what does that mean for me?" I asked. "I wonder if I will still die if my HP hits 0?" Sakuya still looked troubled.

"We need to move. Let's go to Swilvane. There, we can talk safely, and privately." I felt like she was eyeing me like a wild animal.

"Um, sure. How far is this, Swilvane place?" I asked.

"Oh, not far. A short 5-minute flight from here," Sakuya turned around and green wings materialized from her back.

"No fair dang it! Whatever the item is that gives people wings, I want it!" I complained, Sakuya laughed.

"You're a fairy. Everyone has wings." She walked toward me. "Turn around,"

I did as she said, I felt her hand touch the middle of my back.

"Feel here? Imagine you have your own set of wings sprouting from the center of your back." I did as she said. As I did I could feel a tugging sensation near the center of my back.

"What are you doing back there?" I asked.

"Nothing at all," Sakuya said. "Imagine flexing those wings to full span." I did as she commanded, and flexed my back. The tugging grew harder. Then I felt her shove me. "Now, fly!" As she shoved me I jumped. Sure enough, I shot from the ground like a bullet.

"Holy CRAP!" I yelled.

"Flastor! Relax your back!" I heard Sakuya yell. I did as she said.

I slowed to a hover. I looked down and I was maybe 100 feet off of the ground.

"Woah," I looked around. The world was huge. For as far as I could see there were forests. In the distance, maybe 5 miles away, 5 white towers extended above the trees.

"That is Swilvane, the capital of the Sylph territory," Sakuya appeared next to me, crossing her arms.

"This is incredible. How long can we fly?" I asked.

"About 10 minutes or so. Then you must rest. But that also varies on how fast you fly. The slower you fly, the longer you can last."

"This rocks! I've always wanted to fly!" I turned in a circle, taking in the beautiful world around me. Then I spotted a massive white tower in the distance. Or at least I thought it was a tower. As I followed it up into the sky, the top splintered off. The splits looked like tree branches.

"What is that?" I asked pointing to the tower. Sakuya turned and frowned.

"That is the World Tree. It sits in the center of Alfheim, this world." She explained. "I will tell you all about it over a meal, come" She started to fly to Swilvane. I hesitantly followed, trying not to fall out of the sky.

After we flew for 10 minutes or so (It only took that long because I lost my concentration and fell 100 feet), Sakuya and I finally reached Swilvane. Sakuya landed gracefully onto the terrace of a large, government building, while I landed on my butt next to her. When I landed two armed elves ran next to me, brandishing their swords across me.

"Halt, Imp! You dare have the nerve to step foot on our land?" One guy said.

"At ease men. He is a mercenary. He has come to work with us to clear the World Tree," Sakuya said, lowering the soldier's arms.

"My apologies, ma'am," The guy sheathed his sword and offered me a hand.

"Thanks," I took his hand and got up. Sakuya walked next to me and looped her arm next to mine.

"Follow me, my brave Imp," She said. I was still freaked out when she got close. Like a burning sensation in my head was warning me that I was about to get punched.

"Uh. Yeah, OK," I tried to free my arm, but Sakuya pulled me to the doors of the building.

As we walking through the halls she gave me the details on this world. We were in a game called Alfheim Online. There are 9 races of fairies to choose from, all of them were basically in a turf war with each other. Some were allied, like the Salamanders and the Spriggans had an understanding. The grand quest for Alfheim was to clear the World Tree raid. The first race that did, gained infinite flight.

The ability to fly as long as I wanted to had me wanting to raid the Tree right now.

"Then let's round up a raiding party and beat the World Tree!" I said, feeling pumped.

Sakuya laughed. "If only it were that simple. It's been two years and not one race has cleared it."

"What? No one? Why not team up and," I thought for a minute. "Because only one race would get the flight."

"Very sharp of you, Flastor. What's more, it seems to nigh impossible to beat the raid with only one race of fairies."

"That hard huh?" I thought about all of the raids I had ever been part of. Not one was so hard that it wasn't beaten in 2 years of being open. "Is there a side quest you need to do in order to make it easier?" I asked.

"That is what we thought. But we have scoured all over the world. No such quest exists," She said grimly.

"So the raid is designed to never be beaten unless the races work together. But none of the races will work together because only one will get the reward." The thoughts began to form in my head. "What's past the World Tree?"

"The City of Yggdrasil. A floating city on top of the tree." Sakuya said.

"But no one has seen this city? Has anyone tried to fly up the side?"

"One group did," Sakuya gazed at the ceiling as she remembered the tale. "They flew as high as they could and took some pictures. They are very interesting. They are actually some of the things I want to discuss with you."

We walked into a big office, with a mirror on the left side, and a desk at the head, in front of a line of windows. Sakuya walked to the desk and sat down. I sat in the chair on the other side.

"First and foremost," Sakuya started. "I want to ask you to fight with us. We have been discussing an alliance with the Cat Sith to the west. This alliance will set the stage for the first combined race raid on the World Tree," She explained.

"But, only one of you will get the flight," I said, confused.

"It is less about the reward now and more about the curiosity. We just want to beat the raid, and see the end," She said, interlacing her hands. I thought for a minute.

"I'll fight, I want to see this floating city on top of the tree. That sounds cooler than any flight," I said.

In all of my gaming past, I was always interested in city architecture in-game. I would spend hours just exploring the cities of a game. The idea of a floating city that no one has seen excited me.

"Good to hear, but you may want the other thing that might sit past the gates of the World Tree." Sakuya pulled out some pictures from her desk. She placed them on top of each other on her desk. "These were taken before the height limit was placed around the World Tree, notice this one," I looked and noticed a cage that was mixed in the foliage of the tree.

"A giant cage?" I asked.

"Yes. It hangs in the foliage of the World Tree," She revealed a photo that was under the first. "This is what we found when we zoomed in the screenshot as far as we could." I examined the photo. It was blurry, but I faintly made out a girl.

A girl with long chestnut hair.

I shot to my feet. I knew her. One of the empty faces in my head filled in. Then her name came back to me.

"Asuna?"

3

"So you know her?" Sakuya asked, stunned that I recognized her almost instantly.

"I do... Or at least, I did. I thought she was dead." I said. My head throbbed, trying to grasp the memories that had overflowed.

"Well, clearly she's not, as she is alive here. She sits past the gate in the World Tree." Sakuya said.

"Clearly. But if she's here,"

"And you're here,"

"That means that the other 300 players that haven't woken up should be here too," A revelation hit me. "The Dark Room,"

"What dark room?" She asked, clearly playing psychiatrist.

"Before I woke up in the forest, I was in a dark room, someone called me... 'guinea pig'" Sakuya smiled like it was a joke, but I shuttered. "The other 300 must still be trapped in that space. In this world, but not here." Sakuya leaned back.

"You are sharp for someone whose memories are gone," she said, still trying to pull more from me.

"It's not that they are gone. More like ... Altered. Or scattered. I remember events pretty clearly. It's faces and names that I can't remember." In my attempt to remember anything, my mind instantly went back 6 months... Well, six months to me.

6 people stood over me. Their smeared faces were looking down at me, chanting.

"Murderer, Murderer."

I grasped the side of my head. I was covered in a cold sweat.

"Enough. no more for today," I pleaded. Sakuya walked around her desk to place a hand on my shoulder.

"You have clearly seen hard times. I am sorry to make you repeat them. But it may lead to your memories coming back fully," she said. Her hand felt like it grounded me. Like it was the only thing keeping me from slipping into my own head. I calmed down and collected my thoughts.

"So you are proposing, that whoever is keeping me, Asuna, and the others here. Is also responsible for taking my memories?" I asked.

"It is a very real possibility. And whoever that is, might also still have your memories." I finally pieced together what she was getting at.

"You want to raid the Tree, to get me to the top?"

"That wasn't the original plan, but with these circumstances, I have no quarrels with altering the plan a small bit. As I said, it wasn't about the flight anymore." She reassured. I still had doubts.

"What if he doesn't just have my memories. Where the hell would he keep them?" I imagined an ugly guy, guarding a chest that was locked, and the key hung around the guy's neck.

"Well, more specifically, you may find a way to heal your memories to what they were before they were altered." She explained. Then something hit me.

"Why are you so accepting of this? How do you know I'm not lying?"

"Your face is genuine. Especially when you think of the one called Argo," As soon as she said it I smiled, then realized I walked right into that one. Sakuya laughed. "She must be very special to you. And I sense she is waiting for you,"

"How do you figure?" I asked. Sakuya pondered for a second, then smiled.

"Call it a girls intuition." I rolled my eyes.

"That's a cop-out if ever I heard one," I complained, sinking into my chair. Then my eyes grew heavy. Sakuya must have sensed that I was passing out.

"Why don't we adjourn for the day? You can use one of the upstairs rooms while you are here." She said.

"Yeah... Sure," Behind me, someone knocked on the door.

"Lady Sakuya! Are you in?" A female's voice called from the other side.

"Yes! Come in," Sakuya replied. When the girl walked in, I was hit by a strange resemblance. Not by her face, but how she carried herself. She walked with confidence, but a hint of carefreeness.

"Good afternoon Sakuya, just reporting in after the day's hunt." The girl was an elf, like Sakuya. She had long golden hair that was pulled into a ponytail. She wore a short green jacket over a white shoulderless shirt. "Who's this?" She asked, jabbing her thumb at me.

"Sorry, this is our latest addition. He's an Imp," Sakuya said.

I got up and raised my hand.

"Hey, I'm Flastor," She took it and we shook hands.

"I'm Leafa, good to meet you." She said, total confidence in her eyes. I swore she had to be related to the guy in black that I remembered fighting with.

Damn, what was his name?

My face must have been sour because Leafa took a half step away from me. "He looks like he's about to puke. You okay buddy?"

"You will have to excuse Flastor. He's had a very long, troubling day. I will fill you in later. For now, could you please see him to one of the open rooms upstairs?" Sakuya asked.

Leafa went from a look of disgust to a look of concern. "Um... Yeah, Sure." I realized I was spacing out. Leafa poked my shoulder. "C'mon, you look like you could use a nap buddy," She said. The thought of sleep made me buckle. Leafa lunged to prop me up.

"Sorry, I'm good," I said, weakly.

"It's just a game man. Log out if you are feeling that bad," Leafa said.

"I swear, the next person that tells me to log out-" Sakuya cut me off by slapping the side of my arm, softly. I groaned in annoyance. "I can't."

"As I said, Leafa, I will fill you in on this issue. We will need to train him in flight and combat here." Sakuya said to my aid. Leafa just looked more concerned. Then she nodded and helped me out of the room.

She walked me down a hallway. We passed multiple doors. One had a plaque on the door that said, 'Sigurd, head of hunting party 1'.

Finally, we got to the room that I was going to use. Leafa opened the door and I walked in.

"You gonna be OK?" She asked. I nodded.

"Yea, I just need to rest. Thanks for your help." I bowed my head slightly.

"Don't mention it. Sounds like I will see you tomorrow. So sleep good," She turned and walked back down the hall. I walked over to the bed and plopped down. Almost as soon as my head hit the pillow I was asleep.

My dreams were not pleasant. The same chanting people that I remembered earlier were fighting me. I wasn't in control of my body. Every time they came at me I cut their heads off. As their heads hung in the air they would chant more.

"You killed us,"

"You're a monster," I tried to stop myself, but it was like I was possessed. Over and over, they would come. I would cut them down.

"What the hell am I doing? Stop you idiot!" I tried to convince myself that what I was doing was wrong. I was taking the lives of people. Soon 5 of the guy's heads were laying at my feet, and I was walking towards the final guy. He was shaking with fear.

"Stop, don't do it!" I ordered myself. But I raised my sword, as I did my vision shifted from my eyes to the guy on the ground.

I was looking up at myself. My face was twisted with hatred and anger. I never thought I could look like that. Then I drove my sword down to the guy's neck.

"SSTTOOPP!" I yelled.

Right before the blade made contact with the guy's neck, I shot upright, smacking something hard with my head.

4

"Oooowwww," Leafa complained. She was holding her nose. "Has anyone ever told you that you have a hard head?"

"I've been told I'm hard headed if that counts?" I said, rubbing my forehead. Sakuya was on the other side of the bed, and a small, skinny guy was at the end.

He had short, green hair and had a slight hunch about him.

"Umm... Party in my room?" I looked at Leafa. "Why were you hovering over me anyway?" She looked at me, a mixed annoyed, and concerned.

"You were screaming. We thought someone had broken in," Leafa said.

"Nightmares?" Sakuya asked. The memory started to crawl back up in my head.

"Can we not? I would super rather not think about them," I said, rubbing the side of my head. The guy at the end of my bed spoke up, trying to sound tough in front of the ladies.

"You look like you're too old to be screaming from nightmares," He said, timidly. I looked at him, still annoyed from waking up to a Leafa to the face.

"You look like I could break you in half with my bare hands. Wanna try it out?" I said before I could think about how aggressive it sounded. He backed up and went to his blade.

"You see? I told you he was a spy," he squeaked. "He was sent here to scope out our military. There's probably an attack force coming righ-"

"Too much noise this early in the morning!" I yelled to cut him off. Sakuya turned to the boy, clearly annoyed.

"I already explained the situation to you, Recon. Please show Flastor some respect. For all we know, he may be the most powerful player in the game." The last comment made my face burn.

"I wouldn't go that far," I said.

"Modesty will get you nowhere in this world, Flastor. You need to have confidence in yourself," Leafa explained. That sounded like something I said once.

"Yea, you're right. Sorry." I got out of bed and stretched. Then Sakuya walked up next to me, holding a piece of blue fabric. "What's this?"

"Since you so proudly introduced yourself as The Blue Blur yesterday. I figured you should look the part," Sakuya handed the square to me.

It was actually a coat, folded perfectly into a square. When I unfolded it, the fabric flowed all the way down to my ankles. It was navy blue, with a black symbol on the back. It had no sleeves and was tattered around the armholes like they had been ripped off. The bottom of the coat was tattered as well. Like it had seen years of battle.

"What are the symbols?" I asked, thinking they had a really deep meaning. The guy, Recon, laughed.

"Jeez, this guy must really be a noob. He doesn't even know his own race's crest," I've been called many things, most I could handle. But being called a noob by some guy trying to be tough in front of girls annoyed me.

I walked over to him. The girls didn't try to stop me.

"Wanna duel tough guy?" I said. I stood toe to toe with him, I was nearly half a foot taller than him. He wavered, then steeled himself.

"I ain't afraid of you," He said, trying to hide his fear. "You want to die so bad, then fine."

"Let's go then. I need the warm-up," I said, putting on the coat. When I did my shirt changed. It was still black, but it had 2 thin navy blue crosses in the shape of an X on the upper and lower part. Down the sleeves was another navy stripe.

I looked into the mirror. I'm not gonna lie, it looked really cool. I walked out of the room, Recon, following me.

When we got to the courtyard of the building we stood about 10 feet from each other.

"Recon, are you sure you want to do this?" Leafa asked,

"He took down 3 top-level players from the Salamander army, without killing them," Sakuya said. "I'm afraid you have seriously underestimated him."

"I'm sure it was just luck," Recon said, readying his dagger. He had decent form, but his stance was wide.

"If you back out now buddy, we can forget this happened," I said, trying to be nice. "I won't hold it against you if you do."

"You see? He's trying to back out! He is a coward," Recon chided. I scowled.

"First, you call me a noob. I can take that since I am new here. But I will not be called a coward," I said annoyed. Then something hit me. "Stay on the ground, you. Let's see how you fight when we are on equal footing. Unless you're scared?" This made Recon's face turn red.

"Fine! I don't need to fly anyway," He said. I readied my sword. Staring him down.

Right when he stepped forward to lunge at me, I dashed, way faster than I meant. I didn't want to kill him, but I was still not used to my body in this world. It was so much lighter than it was in Aincrad. I dug my foot into the ground and skidded to a stop in front of him before he even moved an inch. I pressed the tip of my blade against his chest.

"Still like your chances friend?" I asked. He squirmed, but I pressed my blade closer to his chest.

"Fine, fine. I yield already," he said, sheathing his dagger.

"Good man," I backed off and helped him regain his balance. "Trust me, bro, I've got so many other things to worry about than your turf war. Though I am willing to help if you need it," I said, extending my hand. He faltered at first, then shook it.

Sakuya clapped to get our attention, "Right then, are you two boys done fighting?"

"Hey! He was the one that wanted to fight," I said, pointing to Recon.

"Even so, we have work to do," Sakuya said, gesturing back to the building. "We have a meeting with the Cat-Sith today that I would like you to attend,"

Recon groaned.

"Why not me?" He complained.

Leafa spoke this time, "Because you need practice. Your stance was awful," she said. Recon hung his head, then walked away. Leafa smiled at me, then followed Recon. Most likely to beat the crap out of him for causing trouble. I turned to Sakuya.

"Right. So, someone gonna fill me in here?" I asked, "I'm not really good at making friends."

"No. But just as you demonstrated, you are proficient with the sword. So we will have you to demonstrate that we have the power to fight next to the Cat-Sith and their Dragoon Riders," Sakuya explained.

"But, riding a Dragoon sounds cooler," I said. As if sensing that I wanted to bail, Sakuya got behind me and pushed.

"Too late. You're ours now."

The meeting went by fast. Basically, Sakuya just introduced me to Alicia-Rue, the leader of the Cat-Sith. Sakuya explained that we should be focusing on the tree now that they have someone as strong as me on their side. Once again, I felt really uncomfortable when they kept saying that I was the best in the game.

When the meeting ended, I walked out of the office to come face to face with Leafa. Luckily, we didn't smack heads this time. She was leaning on the wall, looking at me with curiosity, and a hint of sorrow in her eyes. I scratched the side of my face.

"Um... Hey, What's up?" I said, awkwardly.

"Can we talk for a bit, in private?" She asked, not breaking her gaze. I looked at her, worried.

"I guess. Not like I have anywhere to go." Leafa nodded and started down the hall.

I followed her. I was worried, and I wasn't sure why. Maybe it was the way she looked at me. It was like I had gotten similar looks of worry or sadness before. We got outside and Leafa's wings appeared. She looked back to me.

"Can you fly without the stick?" She asked. She was trying to not sound serious.

"Not very well, but I need to practice anyway." I made my own wings appear.

Leafa nodded and took off. I hesitantly followed her into the sky. We flew for a few minutes until Leafa turned down to a break in the trees. When we landed, we were next to a small lake. For the first time, I landed on my feet. Leafa looked at me and smiled a bit.

"Not bad, for a NOOB."

I rolled my eyes at her.

"Unlike the guy from earlier, you are not someone I'm gonna pick a fight with," I said, laughing. Leafa turned from me and walked to the edge of the lake. I walked up behind her, trying to tread lightly. "So... What did you want to talk about?"

"It's kinda personal. And feel free to say no to my request." Leafa said looking down. I shivered, still not sure why I was panicking so much. Leafa turned to me. "Can you tell me about SAO? Or at least, what you remember?" I was a shocked. But then again, I wasn't sure what to expect. I looked at the lake.

"You won't like my answer now. I really don't remember a whole lot." I said. "Most of the time, it was terrifying." Leafa looked at me. "I can't remember details, but there were times when my life was truly in danger. I came close to death way more than I am willing to admit. Maybe even more." Leafa faced away from me.

"I didn't know it was that bad. Sorry to make you think about it."

The more I did think, the more my mind was fighting itself. Like it wanted to remember something, but at the same time, it didn't.

"Gonna have to eventually. Honestly, it does freak me out that I don't remember. And it terrifies me that I never will," I said.

An image of a girl with shoulder length blonde hair flashed in my head. Her face was smeared, but It could only be one person. Then something that I said while in Aincrad came to me.

"But... I can't think like that." Leafa noticed that I faltered and faced me. I held the side of my head and forced the memory forward. "Instead of thinking 'what if'," My head started to hurt, which couldn't be a good sign. "I need to think, 'I will'." Leafa walked up to me.

"Hey, are you OK?" Before I could say yes. I fell forward. "Oh crap!" Leafa missed in trying to catch me and I fell to the ground. My head felt like it was on fire. Pretty soon, I passed out.

5

This was unlike any sleep I had while in a VR world. It was like my mind was hovering over my body. I had no sight. I heard beeping in the background, like alarms. Then some cluttered voices sounded.

"Why is his temp spiking?" I heard a guy ask.

"What is happening?" That came from a girl.

"Is he OK?" This also came from a girl.

"Kids, I don't know. Give me a minute." The order came from a woman that sounded familiar. Like I had heard it my entire life. Suddenly the alarms stopped. "There. He's stable."

"What about being stable?" A new, female voice called. I could tell the tension in the room skyrocketed. The first guy spoke up.

"Argo?"

My heart skipped a beat. Was I really this close to her? Then it felt like my body was being pulled away. Like I was logging back in.

"Flastor? Flastor?! WAKE UP!"

I shot upright, taking in deep breaths. Leafa stumbled back to avoid my head hitting her. I looked around. I was still in the forest next to the lake. But the sun was sinking below the tree-line.

"God, don't scare me like that! Sakuya would have killed me if something happened to you," Leafa shot in a panic. I shook my head to focus myself.

"Sorry. That was not part of the game plan," I said, trying to ease the tension. I could tell it didn't work.

"What happened? You were saying something that you clearly remembered. Then you passed out!" Leafa was still worried out of her mind. I wasn't sure If she would freak if I said that I was IRL for a bit. But my worse judgment took over.

"I think I was in the real world for a minute." Leafa looked at me like I was insane. "Hey, you asked."

"But what makes you say that?" She asked. I looked at the lake. The sight felt familiar and calming.

"When I was passed out, I heard voices. I recognized almost every single one." I said. Smiling as I remembered the last voice I heard. Leafa must have picked up on my happiness.

"I take it you heard a special someone?" She poked fun. I laughed slightly.

"I can't say. All I know is I heard her name, and my heart raced," I said before I realized how stupid it sounded. But Leafa just smiled.

"That would be something called 'love' you hard head." She slapped my arm. "That kind of thing only happens when two people are in love."

"Lame," I said, sarcastically. Leafa hit me harder this time.

"It's not lame! That's adorable!" Leafa scoffed. "Boys." I got to my feet.

"It's what we do," I said. I offered my hand to her. She took it and got to her feet. "So what's the game plan now?"

"Well. I have a while before I need to log for the day. Want to go hunting?" Leafa asked, smiling at me.

"That is like therapy for me. Let's do it!" Together we took off to Leafa's hunting spot.

We farmed some mobs for the next two hours. While we did, Leafa taught me how to fly properly. We practiced in air combat. I fell out of the sky at least 3 times and landed on various, uncomfortable poses. After another hour, I was flying around and catching up to the flying mobs like an expert.

When we were done, we flew back to Swilvane. I was having no trouble at all keeping my speed and altitude. I tapped Leafa and joked.

"Race ya to the government building!" I took off as fast as I dared. The wind was rushing past my face, I was sure I had dusted her. But Leafa shot past me like a bullet. "Holy crap."

Leafa spun around, stuck her tongue out at me, then shot away. I raced to keep up, but there was no way I would pass her. We landed on the terrace of the building. I was heaving to catch my breath.

"Must suck to get dusted by a girl, huh?" Leafa chided. I looked up at her.

"I remember enough to know not to pull the pin on the 'beat by a girl' grenade. Thank you very much!" I said. Leafa laughed. I looked forward and a tall elf dude was walking up to us. His green hair and cape were flowing. He looked pissed. Leafa shrunk behind me, like a little kid. he got toe to toe with her and me.

"Leafa! What are you doing, hanging around with an Imp? We had party duties to tend to!" He shot.

"Did you miss the memo, Sigurd? This is the newest Merc for the Sylphs. I was just out hunting with him. That's all!" Leafa shot from behind me. This got Sigurd fired up.

"You mean you were hunting with this weak, newbie? How kind of you Leafa. But this does not excuse you from-" Sigurd looked at me and stopped himself. Probably because I was staring daggers at him. "What? Did I offend you? My apologies, sir Imp! But I will not have a weakling such as yourself hogging my members!"

"If you call me a weakling one more time, pal, we are gonna have issues," I said before I could stop myself. Leafa shoved me slightly to shut me up.

"This is a fight I would enjoy to watch!" I heard a voice from behind Sigurd. I looked past him to see Sakuya, with a mirror floating next to her. On the mirror, a projection of Alicia-Rue stood. "Good evening, Flastor. Causing trouble?"

"That's funny. This guy is the one string up trouble," I jabbed a thumb to Sigurd. "Talking to Leafa like she is a tool. Not in front of me, he isn't." I looked at Sigurd to make sure I drove the point home. He faltered.

"Why don't you two settle this like true swordsman?" Sakuya asked. I looked at her. "An honorable duel. You can display your skills to our 'Strongest Swordsman' and to our potential allies here." Sakuya gestured to Alicia, who was watching intently. I smiled and nodded.

"How 'bout it, tough guy? Care for a duel?" Sigurd eyed me from the side of his vision. Then stared down Sakuya. Before he could even breath the words that I knew would have made me snap, I spoke. "Unless you are scared to be beaten by a so-called weakling?"

Sigurd swung his arm around to hit me with the back of his arm, but I caught it. "You dare call me a coward?" He said, in pure hatred. "Fine. We can duel. And I don't care if you live or die."

"Nothing new to me pal. Bring it." I said, calmly. Sakuya looked at me, worried. I realized I said that like I remembered something. I held my hand up to signal to wait. I looked to Sigurd again and released his arm. "Draw your sword. Let's do this."

I spun on my heel and walked away from Sigurd. I was about to turn around to face him when I felt a presence right behind me. I drew my blade and spun to meet Sigurd's. He seemed surprised that I stopped him.

"You weren't kidding about the killing part, huh?" I said. "True act of a Hero. Attacking an unaware opponent. Too bad for you, I'm always aware." Sigurd's face scowled.

"Shut up you arrogant Boy!" When he said boy, I faltered. When I did, Sigurd was able to deflect my blade and cut me cleanly in the chest. It took my health down by about 10%. I stood there for a minute. My mind was getting cloudy. "Looks like the little Boy has lost his-"

I cut him off by dashing behind him. I swung my sword and he barely was able to block it. Anger was building inside of me. I spun in the opposite direction and jabbed a few times, leaving cuts across Sigurd's body. Sigurd tried to swing at me, but I flipped over him. His back was wide open when I landed. I stuck twice, leaving a red X on his back. Then I went to stab him right in the center.

Right before my blade made contact with his back, I felt someone hold my arm back. My instincts took over, thinking that another enemy had sneaked up on me. I spun and slashed, only to be met by a Katana. Leafa was there, struggling to hold me back. My mind cleared, and I let up on Leafa's blade. When I did, there was a chunk missing from it.

"Jesus. Sorry. I'll pay to have it fixed," I said, rubbing my head. Leafa shook her head.

"Don't worry about it. I needed a new one anyway," She said, smiling. I nodded.

"Next one is on me. Just let me know." I turned to Sigurd. He was on the ground and had cuts all over him. His health bar was hovering in the yellow, just outside of the red. "Sorry, buddy. I really didn't mean to go all out." Sigurd scoffed at me.

"Don't pull that crap! What are you, a demon or something?" I shuddered and took a deep breath. "you looked like you were ready to hack me to bits. Do you enjoy killing that much?"

"As if, freak!" I shot. Leafa stirred behind me. Sakuya and Alicia were staring at me, wide-eyed. "You just said something that pissed me off. That's all." Sigurd looked at Sakuya and Alicia.

"Do you really want such an unstable man working with you?" He asked. Sakuya looked at him, then me. I was worried that she would agree and send me off. I took the hint as a sign to leave.

"Sorry. I'll just leave," I said in a light tone. "I appreciate the help, but I don't want to cause trouble among yourselves." I turned to Sigurd. "GG buddy." I went to walk away.

"Flastor!"

I turned to see Sakuya, staring at me with anger. This whole situation felt familiar.

"You have no need to leave. This was a duel. And you won with flying colors." Sakuya looked at Sigurd. "Sigurd. This man will be the one to help us beat the tree. Do you not want that?"

Sigurd looked away. Not wanting to meet Sakuya's gaze. He walked away from the building, to me. When he passed me, I heard him mutter.

"Won't matter. You will be dead soon."

I spun to attack him, but Leafa held me back.

"Easy..."

With that, I fully calmed down. I wasn't sure why that calmed me down, but either way, I didn't care. My mind was becoming less foggy... Well less foggy than it was since I have been here. I lightened up and watched Sigurd closely to make sure he didn't come back. Once he was out of sight, I put my sword away. I heard Sakuya walk up behind me.

I turned to her and smiled slightly.

"Sorry for that. I didn't mean to go crazy like that," I said. Sakuya shook her head.

"It's not a problem! He was calling you out a bit," Sakuya said. Alicia chimed in.

"The heat of battle can get to anyone. And you fought with the fierceness of any Dragoon! The Cat-Sith would be proud to fight with you."

"It wasn't even the battle or that what he said offended me." I rubbed my forehead, trying to force the thought out. "It was when he said 'Boy'." I thought of Argo, or at least what I could of her. Leafa held my shoulder, somehow knowing that I was thinking about Argo. I smiled at Leafa. "Only one person can call me that and get away with it."

Sakuya understood immediately and smiled. "I see. Well at any rate." Sakuya turned to the projection of Alicia. "Are you satisfied, Alicia?"

Alicia nodded and grinned. "Indeed I am! That was a pretty cool fight. I look forward to seeing you fight in person, Flastor!" I nodded.

"Looking forward to fighting next to a Dragoon Rider!" I said, smiling. The image of Alicia shimmered and vanished, the mirror floated back to the Government building. Sakuya turned to me.

"You will have to excuse Sigurd. He has been agitated as of late. He will come around, with time." I looked to the entrance to the government building's terrace, expecting him to come running, guns blazing. Leafa patted my back.

"Why don't we call it a day? It's been eventful!" I looked at her and nodded.

"It has been, hasn't it?" I looked at Sakuya. "Yea I think I'm gonna hit the sack. What's the game plan now?"

"We will have one more meeting before the negotiations. And it's only to set the date. For now, we should rest and prepare." Sakuya led us back into the building and we all parted ways.

6

The next few days were a blur. They were a mix of meetings with the Cat-Siths, leveling with Leafa when she didn't have 'party obligations', and exploring Swilvane. All the while I became an expert flyer. I could keep up with Leafa as long as she didn't go full speed, and I had no issues when it came to combat while flying.

I made sure to keep a special eye on Sigurd without raising suspicion. He took great lengths to not look me in the eye after our duel. But other than the dirty looks, he never did anything that was out of line or anything, so I let him be.

I took the time to meet some of the higher level players of the Sylph race. And even went hunting with a few. Since I didn't have to be the big bad 'Blue Blur' anymore, I figured I should try to make friends with the people that might be in the raid on the Tree. They all seemed like good people, and they accepted me without any questions. It felt odd to be so welcomed, but it's not like I would know why.

"Flastor? Are you with us?"

Sakuya was tapping my arm to snap me out of my spacing. I shook my head.

"Uh. Yea, sorry. What's up?" I said, thinking they were just trying to get my attention.

"Honestly. We have been trying to talk to you for the past 15 minutes now!" Alicia complained.

"Oh... Sorry. I spaced," I scratched my face. Sakuya groaned.

"We were saying that we should finalize the negotiations soon since it seems like the Salamanders have been on the move lately," Sakuya explained. I raised my eyebrow.

"Wow, I was super out of it. When did this happen?" I said. Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Dang, whoever claimed you as her own has to have the patience of a saint!" She said. I laughed, slightly.

"I wish I could remember so I could tell you," I said, looking down and rubbing my head.

"Oh, crap... Sorry." Alicia said, softly. I shook my head.

"It's alright. So what happened with the Salamanders then?" I asked to change the subject.

"Three more members attacked Sigurd's party yesterday. They were pretty strong too, from what Leafa said," Sakuya explained. "If not for a Spriggan, dressed in all black, she may not have survived." I could tell my eyes had widened when Sakuya looked at me. "What?"

"Dressed in all black? Nothing else?" The guy in black that kept popping up in my head when I thought of Leafa.

"From what Leafa said, no." Sakuya was examining me like I was a display. Was it the same guy from my foggy memories? Or just a coincidence? If it is, was he here for Asuna? Did that mean that some of my friends were still trapped? I felt a tap on my shoulder.

"Yeah?" I asked. Sakuya was worried.

"Do you think you know him? Do we need to go find him?" She asked. I quickly shook my head.

"No, no. It's fine. So, we need to get the negotiations done soon then, huh? Why not today? Just get it out of the way?" I asked. Sakuya and Alicia exchanged looks, then smiled.

"Itching to get going huh?" Alicia asked. I nodded. "Well, you know what? I don't mind. I'll round my party up and we will see you in about an hour or so?"

Sakuya nodded. "Sounds good. I will gather my warriors as well." She turned to me. "You can wander for a while if you want. I will find you when we are ready." She must have picked up that my head needed clearing.

"Got it, see you girls later then." I waved to them both and walked out of Sakuya's office to explore.

During the next half an hour, I wandered around Swilvane. The town was beautiful. The buildings were all white like a southern European town. As I walked through the town, people gave me annoyed looks. Like I didn't belong.

Honestly, it didn't bother me. It felt like I was used to those kinds of looks. The only thing that was missing was the guy in the red coat, walking next to me. I felt torn. Like half of my persona was missing. The more I tried to regain my memories, the foggier they seemed to get. Like the only way they would come back, was if I didn't think about them. But I wasn't sure what to not think about to make them come back. As I was weaving through the crowds, one guy stepped in front of me, trying to take advantage of the fact that my mind wasn't all here.

"Little far from home, ain't ya Imp?" He asked. I tried to go around him and keep walking. But he grabbed my arm and pulled me back. "Get back here you little punk. This is Sylph territory. We don't need your kind here," right before I was gonna flip the guy over my shoulder. A voice spoke up.

"Un-hand him!"

Sakuya strode forward, flanked by 5 guys in elven armor to each side. I must have been super not paying attention to the time. "He is the centerpiece of my raiding party. You will treat him as such," she commanded, voicing it loud for everyone to hear. The crowd parted ways and bowed as she walked up to me. "It's time to go,"

"Already?" I slid close to the guy that was bugging me, "But me and slick here were about to make friends, weren't we buddy?" The guy groaned and walked away. Sakuya and I laughed. "So where are we headed?"

"The Valley of the Butterflies, northwest of the World Tree." She said. I could tell my eyes flashed with excitement.

"We're gonna be close, huh?" I asked.

"Maybe if the negotiations go good, and we have extra time, we could go to the central town of Arune, at the base of the Tree," Sakuya smiled.

"I'll make time for something like that," I said, smiling like a dork. We all took off in formation and made our way to the meeting.

We got to the meeting place first. While we sat at the table, waiting, Sakuya filled me in on our sides proposal. They would present me. I would reveal my name and stats to everyone at the meeting. Then I would fight one of their strongest players as a test.

Pretty straightforward. The other negotiations would be handled by Sakuya, which I was totally OK with.

"You do the talkin'. I'll do the walkin'," I said, holding my hands up in surrender.

"Precisely. If this goes good, we will be able to pool our funds, and raise enough for the raid in maybe a few weeks time," Sakuya explained. "Hopefully that means only a few weeks until you can go home."

"Home," I repeated under my breath. "I don't even know what I would do with myself when I get back."

I started thinking about my parents. My younger sisters, my younger brother, and my older brother. I stopped in my tracks.

Wait... Brother? The guy in red that was always with me in my memories. He was my older brother.

His name? What was his name? It felt like it was right there. Like I had a hold of a rope, but it was slipping. Did it start with an M? Or maybe an A? Why did it seem like both?

The thought faded. I slammed the table in anger, causing it to crack a small bit.

"That is getting really old, really fast," I groaned.

Everyone looked at me like I was a freak, everyone except for Sakuya, who put her hand on my arm.

"A memory?" She asked.

"My brother... I had a brother who was with me in Aincrad," I said, holding the side of my head. "He is the one in red that was almost always with me, at least in every fight."

"I see. Anything else?" She said, trying to make me think.

Honestly, when she first did this I was annoyed. But it made me think harder, and sometimes I learned more. I forced myself back to that memory. I tried to grasp anything that I could about me and my brother.

I got something, when I did I hit my head on the table, annoyed.

"I want a refund, or an exchange," I groaned, wishing I had remembered something else.

"What?" Sakuya asked, concerned that I just bashed my head on the table.

"Nothing," I didn't want to say it out loud.

"Oh come on! Don't keep us guessing!" One of the guys next to me said.

"Nope," was my response.

"Say it or you might forget it," She was right. All of the party was staring at me, clearly interested in my story. I willed myself to voice the memory.

"The Crimson Cannon was my brother's nickname, together, we got the name Cannon Brothers," I waited for everyone to laugh. But everyone was silent. "Well go on, laugh."

"No way man, tell us why. Is there a reason for the names?" The guy next to me asked.

"We got it after Argo saw us fight one time. He would launch me either up or forward, and he wore a crimson coat like mine. That earned him the name 'Crimson Cannon'. When he launched me, the force of his swing, and with my own jumping power. Combined with the blue glow of my sword and with my blue coat. It made me look like a blur of glowing blue shooting to our foe. Earning me the name 'Blue Blur'." I finished, still waiting for the laughter.

Instead, everyone regarded me. Nodding their heads. I looked a few of them in the eyes and there was something I had never seen.

Admiration. Like I was an inspiration or someone to look up to.

But why me? I wasn't that great. I'm just another gamer. And a jerk of a gamer at that. I didn't deserve looks like that. One of the guys must have been reading my mind.

"We are looking up to you, not solely because of your skill." He said he put a hand on my shoulder. "But your resolve is staggering. Any normal person probably would have had a mental breakdown by now. Having their memories just a hairs reach away."

"Honestly, it must be maddening." Another said. I looked down and clasped my hands together.

"You have no idea man," I said.

"So that's why we are here. You may be just another gamer. But that's why we want to help. It's because you are one of us. It seems like you have been through so much when you were in Aincrad. You carried a huge burden of saving a lot of lives, whether you knew it or not. Let us lighten the load and get you home."

I nearly cried. Never did I feel like I would need to be cheered up. But they were right. I had been unconsciously carrying the want to save everyone in my group. The ones that came in after me. The ones I knew. And the ones I met.

The ones that came after me... My group... I shot to my feet.

"No... Come on!" I tried to hold those thoughts there. It felt like my head had a moment of clarity every two minutes while I was here. Names... I need names damn it... But it was already starting to fade. I looked around. Everyone was waiting for me to have a meltdown.

"Sorry... I was close to something," I sat back down and buried my hands in my head.

"We got your back man," the guy to my left said, patting my back.

"Hey! Sakuya!" A cheerful voice called in the air. I looked up and saw a cat... No, I'm not kidding.

The Cat-sith were basically people with cat ears and tails. Don't get me wrong, it looks cute on a girl. But on a guy, it makes them look like hungry lions. All of the warriors around Alicia were decked head to toe in armor, with cat eyes that were narrowed to a slit. "Sorry, we are late. hope we didn't keep you waiting!"

She floated down and shook Sakuyas hand.

"Good to see you, Alicia. Allow me to formally introduce, Flastor." She motioned for me to get up, so I did. I got up and bowed slightly at Alicia.

"Good to actually meet you, ma'am," I said, trying to be formal. She slapped my arm and smiled,

"No need to ma'am me. Besides, you have enough to worry about." We had told her a condensed version of my story during our small meetings in Swilvane. "Now, let's all sit. Before we do anything, I want to hear your whole story. This meeting is basically for you now." Sakuya looked stunned, and I was freaking out.

"Alicia? What do you mean?" Sakuya asked. Alicia sat down on the other side of the table.

"It's obvious that neither of us cares about the flight anymore. But since he showed up, you have been pushing the raid on the Tree more and more." She locked her fingers. "I just want to know why. So start from the beginning, and don't miss a detail." Alicia looked at me with the curious eyes of a cat.

Sakuya thought for a second, then she smiled and turned to me.

"I suppose the floor is yours now."

"Joy," I hated public speaking. "Well, I woke up here ab-"

"Not that beginning!" Alicia cut me off. "The true beginning. Aincrad beginning,"

"Um... I can't? You know that." I said, halfheartedly. But it felt like my head was becoming less clouded the more I thought to the beginning.

"You don't see so sure of that. Just humor us, handsome," Alicia said, smiling like she had a devious plan cooked up.

So the Sylphs and the Cat-Sith all sat down. I still didn't know what Alicia had cooked up, but I willed my memories of the beginning forward, then I latched onto something. I forced the memories up. This time, I didn't take no for an answer. I told them about my time in Aincrad. About how me and my brother, Majiku, got trapped.

How my friends, Austin and Peyton came after me at my sister's request. How we went to attempt to save Liz's' friends, only to face off against one of the first groups of PKers in the game.

How Argo and I grew closer after I had snuffed out another group of Monster PKers that were after her. I told them about Willow, having saved her and helping her become one of the best scimitar users on the front. It was becoming easier to think. I wasn't forcing it at this point.

I told them about the raid on Laughing Coffin. How, after one of them almost killed Argo, I went on a rampage and killed 6 people. I recounted the many times I fought back to back with Majiku.

I told them about my last day in Aincrad, finding out that Argo may be waiting for me in the real world, and about fighting The Skull Reaper. I told them about Kirito's duel with Kayaba. And how I nearly caught Kayaba off guard after breaking his paralysis.

I told them about Kirito beating Kayaba, and clearing the game. How I was supposed to have woken up. But instead, I was in a black space for 2 months, even though it only felt like a few minutes, having my brain picked and my memories smeared.

"And that's pretty much it. Now I'm here, fighting to get out and remember my life," I concluded. I looked around. The entire Sylph side was staring at me, wide-eyed. Alicia was smiling smugly like she was proud of something she did. "What? Did I say something wrong?"

"Flastor..." Sakuya tapped my shoulder. I looked at her and she looked gobsmacked. "You just told us everything,"

"Uh... Yea? What of it? I did what she asked..." I said, confused at the problem.

"You told us everything, names and all," It hit me, my mind was crystal clear. Almost nothing was blurry anymore.

"Holy..."

"I can't believe that worked," Alicia said. I looked at her.

"What did you do to me?" I asked.

"Well, there is a good reason why we were late," Alicia spoke up. "You see, we are beast tamers. We have the ability to tame even the most temperamental of beasts. When we have to tame either a large group of monsters or one really angry one, we set up a soothing barrier. It calms the mind and makes it easier to befriend them."

Alicia whistled, and the air around us shimmered like an invisible dome was being lifted. Four mages shot from the tree line and walked up to the table.

"From what you were telling me, your mind was in chaos. You were remembering things here and there so you couldn't grasp on to a single memory and reform it." Alicia pointed to the sky, that was still shimmering. "So with this dome, combined with you starting from the beginning and recounting everything. My hope was that you would at least regain some of your memory."

I held the side of my head, worried that with the dome dissipating, my memories would fade again. But they were solid. I looked up at her.

"That was a huge gamble, using a game mechanic for monsters on a person," I said. Alicia smiled.

"I'm a gambling girl," she said. I smiled back, holding back tears.

"I can't tell you how grateful I am that you did this, not even close to describe it. Thank you"

"Well, that's half of the battle. The guy that did this to you probably still has the 300 other people that have not woken up from the SAO incident. Now we need to get you to the top of the Tree to confront him." Alicia said, putting her arms behind her head. Sakuya took the moment to speed the negotiations up.

"She's right. If the Cat-Sith are willing to pool their resources with us, we could be raid ready within the next week," without skipping a beat, Alicia said,

"The Cat-Sith agree to these terms. That Tree is as good as cleared!" Alicia and Sakuya stood up and shook hands. I looked up at Alicia, who was standing proud. Something caught my eye as I was looking at her.

Behind her, a sea of red dots had appeared in the sky. I got up and drew my sword. An army of fairies, all wearing red armor had moved on the plateau we were on.

There was one guy at the head of the sea of red, he raised his hand, preparing to order an attack. Right before he dropped it, a meteor crashed down on the ground in front of us, kicking up a cloud of dust.

"What was that?" Alicia said, covering her face.

"Are meteors a thing in this game?" I asked. Sakuya shook her head.

The dust settled. When it did, I honestly got the chills. Standing in the center of a small crater. A small elf, with pointed ears, and black wings stood. He had a sword nearly as long as his body and was dressed head to toe, in black. Before I could stop myself, I spoke under my breath.

"Kirito?"


	8. Alfheim 2: Assault on Yggdrasil

"Salamanders! Stand Down!"

The guy in black stared down the Salamanders with steely determination. The army of Salamanders hesitated, not because of the order. But just by the fact that one guy had just ordered them to not attack.

"Sakuya."

My instincts took over, and I swung at the new voice. Nearly slicing Leafa in two.

"Christ, sorry," I said. "Figured you would know better than to sneak up on me," I joked to ease the tension. Sakuya was all business.

"Leafa? What are you doing here?" Sakuya asked.

"It's too long to get into now," Leafa nodded to the guy. It had to be Kirito. Head to toe in black, and flashy as ever. No one else would have the balls to stare an army down. "The fate of all of our races depend on his next move."

Sakuya groaned and I had to hold back the urge to go pull him down and shut him up. Last time he was in a situation like this, he made everyone hate him. And since he was here, then there is no doubt in my mind that the girl in the picture was Asuna.

"I want to talk to your commander!" Kirito shouted. I almost expected them to say 'Piss off' and all attack us. But a tall guy from the army floated forward. Kirito flew up to join him. I could barely hear their conversation.

"What the hell is a Spriggan like you doing here?" Kirito just stared the Salamander down. "I'm gonna kill you no matter what your answer. But since you're brave enough to face me, I might as well hear you out."

"This guy is a little too big for his pants," I said. Sakuya elbowed me to shut me up.

"My name is Kirito. I'm an ambassador for the Spriggan-Undine Alliance." I hung my head. I knew I should have gone to shut him up. "Since you are on the offensive today, I'm assuming you want to wage war against all of our races."

Sakuya and Alicia exchanged looks and Leafa just stood with her mouth hanging open. Both Alicia and Sakuya looked at Leafa and she shot her hands up in surrender.

"I feel like I've been in this situation before. Oh wait, I have," I said.

"The Undines are allied with the Spriggans, huh?" The Salamander said, clearly not convinced. "You're supposed to be their ambassador and yet you've come here without a guard?" Kirito was quick to recover.

"Yeah, so what? I was sent here to negotiate trade terms with the Sylphs and the Cat-Sith. But if you interrupt our talks you're going to get some serious hurt. All of our races will team up, and we will bring the fight straight to the Salamanders"

"God, shut up, shut up." I groaned. I knew I could take on these guys, but I couldn't do it while protecting Sakuya and Alicia. I knew Kirito couldn't either. The Salamander chuckled.

"You're kidding me, right? You're all alone and you have crappy gear, there's no way you are someone's ambassador."

"Dumbass," I cursed.

The Salamander had a fair point. All of Sakuya's and Alicia's group were heavily geared. Even my coat counted as high tier cloth armor.

The Salamander drew a long, red sword.

"If you can survive my attacks for 30 seconds, then I will believe you are who you say you are," the Salamander said calmly.

Kirito drew his own, oversized sword and flew level with him. "Gee thanks. That's mighty generous."

"Why is he using such a big sword? He's going to be slower," I said.

"He complained that every one-handed sword we tried was too light. That was the only one he felt comfortable with," Leafa explained.

"Fair point, the swords here are light as a freakin' feather," I said. gripping my own one-handed longsword on my back.

"This is bad," Sakuya said, getting our attention.

"Why?" Leafa asked, turning to Sakuya.

"Do you see that Salamander's sword?" Sakuya said, staring at the red blade. "It's the Demon Sword Gram. You need a Two-Handed Sword skill of at least 950 to equip it."

"Nine hundred fifty?" Leafa repeated,

"Yes, and there is only one person I know who can use it. General Eugene. Have you heard of him?"

Leafa nodded. "Yeah, I've heard the name."

"He's the younger brother of Mortimer, the leader of the Salamanders. They are brothers in real life too," Sakuya explained. This made my heart sting, thinking about my own brother. "Mortimer is a brilliant strategist, but in terms of strength, they say Eugene is the games strongest player,"

"He's the strongest player?" Leafa turned to face the fight, "Kirito."

"If you say that sword is comfortable for him, then he's got this," I said, crossing my arms.

"How can you be so sure?" Sakuya asked. I smiled, thinking that I shouldn't go too far into Kirito's story.

"Just watch. This is gonna be a good fight," I said.

The clouds in the sky were breaking. After a minute a ray of sun shone down on Eugene's blade. He tilted it so it would momentarily blind Kirito, and lunged. Kirito moved to meet his blade. But when they should have made contact, Eugene's sword passed right through Kirito's and struck him. Kirito went flying into the mountain behind him.

"What was that?" Leafa asked,

"The Ethereal Shift, the swords bonus skill," Alicia explained. "When someone tries to block it with a sword or shield, the Demon Sword Gram can phase right through it!"

"Really? No way!" Leafa was shocked, I was just annoyed.

"That takes the skill out of fighting, what a dumb trait," I said, starting to worry.

Kirito shot from the mountain and locked blades with Eugene. He was clearly pissed at the stupid skill too. Kirito and Eugene exchanged blows. Kirito trying to dodge instead of blocking as much as he could. One time was too slow, and Eugene's sword passed through Kirito's again and caught him right in the chest. Kirito backed up.

"Hey, Big Red, I think your 30 seconds are up by now," Kirito said, trying to recover his thoughts.

"I've changed my mind. I've decided to kill you anyway. Now you have to survive until I do," Eugene said with a wicked sneer.

"Yeah that figures," Kirito groaned. "But I won't go down that easy!" Kirito flew to Eugene

"Kick his ass Kirito," I said under my breath. They exchanged a few more blows. Sparks flying everywhere.

"This won't end well," Sakuya said, "They both seem like equally skilled fighters. But Eugene's weapon is far superior."

"He can do it," Leafa stole my line. "Kirito can beat him, I know it."

She must have seen him fight before. Anyone that watches Kirito fight first hand pretty much thinks that. The more blows that they had, the more Eugene was getting the upper hand. Nailing small hits all over Kirito.

After a hit to Kirito's face, he flipped and sped away from Eugene. Then I saw Kirito casting a spell.

"Shocker, he's ahead of me again," I said annoyed.

Leafa tried to teach me magic, but I just didn't have the talent for it. Seeing Kirito using it, made me want to try again. Kirito flipped again and held his hand out to Eugene. A puff of black smoke came from his hand, obscuring all vision. Then it flew to us, sending a shock-wave through us.

"Flashy bastard, you haven't changed," I said, holding my arms over my face.

Then I sensed someone had flown close. I drew my blade, thinking either Eugene or one of the Salamanders had advanced.

"I need to borrow this," Kirito had appeared behind Leafa and took her sword, then shot straight up. It hit me what his plan was.

"Oh my god, you are not!" I shouted as he flew up.

Eugene swung hard and the smoke dissipated. When it was clear, Kirito was nowhere to be seen. I looked around, expecting him to come flying up from the trees.

"Hey, where'd he go?" Alicia asked, also looking for him.

One of her guards spoke up. "Do you think he ran away?"

"Of course he didn't!" Leafa said defensively. She stared at the ground as if remembering something. Then she clasped her hands like she was praying.

Above, I heard a whistling sound.

"You cheeky," I said but decided to let it play out. Leafa must have heard it too, she looked up and smiled.

Kirito was dive bombing Eugene, using the sun to blind him.

"Boots on the other foot now, jerk," I said. Eugene shot to Kirito. I could hear Kirito shouting in defiance. When Kirito swung his blade, Eugene's passed through it, heading straight for Kirios head.

"Block!" I shouted, getting way to into the fight. Kirito leaned back as far as he could. He swung his left arm, revealing Leafa's blade.

Since the Ethereal Shift was on cool-down, Leafa's blade made perfect contact, and he deflected the Demon Sword away.

"He's open! Finish him off!" I yelled.

Kirito bellowed, landing blow after blow to Eugene. After 13 hits, Eugene's health hit the yellow. A skill of his armor must have activated because before Kirito could land another blow, a ball of fire surrounded Eugene. When Kirito hit it, he flew back. But he recovered fast.

Eugene flew to Kirito at top speed, bringing his sword down. Kirito slid to the left, and hit a few more times, before driving both swords into Eugene. Kirito shouted and forced Eugene down. Somehow Eugene was able to push Kirito away but not before a few more slashes to the chest.

Then came the finishing move. Kirito brought Leafa's sword down and cleaved the Salamander in two. All that was left of General Eugene was a fiery ball heading to the ground. Everyone stood in silence. Stunned.

2

Sakuya held out her fan and broke the silence.

"Splendid! Marvelous!"

"That was the most amazing fight ever!" Alicia cheered.

"Nicely done Spriggan!" Sakuya called. I looked around and everyone was smiling. Even the Salamanders were amazed. In classic Kirito style, he swung his sword down to the right when he was sure the fight was done.

"Good to see you haven't lost your touch man," I said, thinking back to a comment I made to him once.

As pissed as I was that he got to fight Eugene instead of me. After seeing Kirito in action again, I was sure my memories had returned fully. His last attack was a sped up version of the skill he used on Kayaba. It was almost like I was watching the fight again.

We recovered Eugene's remain light and Sakuya revived him. I was slightly against it, but Kirito insisted that he wanted to talk to him. I couldn't tell if Kirito recognized me or not. Then again, I almost didn't want him to. If he did, and he got in touch with my friends in the real world.

I pushed the thought out. I wouldn't want them coming after me now. Especially if that meant that they could possibly get trapped.

After Sakuya finished reviving Eugene, he stood and stretched. I expected Eugene to go into a frenzy. But instead, he turned to Kirito.

"You're an excellent fighter. In fact, you are the most powerful player I have ever seen. Well done," He said.

"A humble gamer. Don't get a lot of those too often," I muttered, standing in the back of the group. Kirito grinned.

"You're not so bad yourself," He said.

"I didn't know the Spriggans had someone like you in their ranks," Eugene said, "This world is a bigger place than I thought."

"Are we cool then? Will you withdraw?" Kirito asked, calmly and nicely. There was an eerie silence. I moved to grab my blade, ready for a fight.

"Eugene, may I have a word," A Salamander stepped forward.

"Kagemune? What is it?" Eugene asked. Leafa had a looked like she recognized the shorter Salamander, Kagemune.

"You might find this interesting. You know how my party was wiped out yesterday? Well this Spriggan," Kagemune looked at Kirito. "He's the one that did it." He let the words sink in with Eugene. "And he was traveling with an Undine."

"Interesting," Eugene thought for a moment. "Then I guess I have to believe you. For the record, the last thing our leader and I want is to go to war with the Spriggans and Undines. We will withdraw for now, but I'm going to be looking forward to our next battle," Eugene held out a fist.

"Then that makes two of us," Kirito fist bumped him. Eugene ordered for the army to withdraw and they all flew away. Kirito and Leafa had an exchange, then Sakuya stepped forward.

"Excuse me, but would either of you mind explaining what is going on here?" So they did.

They said Sigurd had set up the meeting. How, if Sakuya and Alicia were killed, then he would be reborn as a Salamander in the next game update. By the time they were though explaining the full story the sun was setting. I was ready to pummel Sigurd to the dirt.

"Alicia. Have you raised your Dark Magic skill?" Sakuya asked. Alicia's ears twitched.

"Mmm-Hmm," Alicia hummed in agreement.

"Open a Moonlight Mirror to Sigurd, then."

"Sure, but it won't last long in the day."

"Not to worry, this will be brief."

Alicia cast the spell and we were surrounded by a dark dome. A mirror appeared in front of Sakuya. It shimmered and an image of a Sylph reflected onto the mirror. He was leaning back on a desk swashing a glass of red liquid around.

"Sigurd..." Sakuya said, emotionlessly. Sigurd jumped and threw his glass away. He stumbled to his feet.

"S-Sakuya!" He babbled.

"Nice to see you too! Unfortunately, I'm still alive." Sakuya shot. I had to giggle a small bit.

"How?" He started to ask, then he recovered from almost exposing himself. "I- I mean, what happened at the meeting?"

"It went well!" Sakuya responded, smiling slyly. "There's still the matter of signing the treaty, though." Sakuya let it sink in that his plan failed miserably, and was about to backfire. "By the way, we had an unexpected guest."

"What guest?" Sigurd asked, trying to play dumb.

"His name is General Eugene, and he sends his regards." Sigurd's face grew wide in shock. He knew he was caught now. I had to hold back the urge to go laugh at his face. His eyes drifted over to Leafa and Kirito, I was standing behind them a ways back.

"Leafa..." He said, annoyed. "So that's it?" He lowered his head, "Those incompetent Lizards. Well, it's your move, Sakuya. Are you gonna fine me? Or maybe you wanna take away my command? If so, remember without me, your rule won't last very long."

"Actually, I was thinking of granting the request you made them. Since you can't stand being a Sylph, you're free to go!" Sigurd turned back to face Sakuya's image. His eyes were wide.

"Wait... What?" He watched on as Sakuya opened her console. She tapped a few buttons, then a window popped up in front of Sigurd.

"Hold on!" Sigurd protested. "Me? You're banishing me?"

"I'm letting you live to wander the Neutral Territory as a Renegade. With any luck, you can find something there to occupy your precious time." Sakuya broke her gaze. It seemed like she slightly regretted her choice.

"You Bi-" Sigurd got cut off by a forced teleport.

After the light dimmed down, his office was empty. Alicia broke the spell and the dark dome around us disappeared. I sunk back into the crowd to make sure Kirito didn't see me. Sakuya exchanged thanks, and Alicia busted Kirito for the whole 'Spriggan-Undine Alliance' bluff.

Alicia and Sakuya fought over who would get Kirito, trying to get him to become a Merc for one of them. Not gonna lie, it would be a help. But Leafa must have had other plans. She basically told the girls to back off. But Leafa retreated shortly after like she embarrassed herself. After an exchange, Sakuya questioned what Kirito and Leafa's intentions were.

Leafa took a step to Sakuya. "So, you guys allying, it's to attempt the World Tree right?"

"Ultimately yes, the goal was for us to work together to beat the Tree," Sakuya said.

"If it's OK, and it's not to much trouble. Could we go with you? We are kinda in a hurry, though."

Sakuya and Alicia exchanged looks and smiled.

"Well. I can't see why not? The truth is, we would be grateful to have you along," Sakuya said. "But, why are you in such a hurry to get there?"

"It's not me," Leafa started, but Kirito stepped up.

"I'm the one who wants to get to the top of the tree," Kirito said. "I think...," He took a shaky breath. "I think someone is waiting for me up there."

Sakuya looked in my direction, wide-eyed. I held up my hand and drew it across my neck, indicating not to bring me up. She recovered fast and acted like she was just gazing off, thinking.

"Is it Oberon the Fairy King?" She asked.

He was the one that was supposedly supposed to give the infinite flight past the gate of the Tree. I always guessed that he either didn't exist. Or he was actually the guy, Nobuyuki Sugo, that held me and tried to take my memories. If he was waiting past the gate, I would enjoy stomping him into the dirt even more than punching Kayaba.

"No, it's not him," Kirito said sadly. "It's someone I can't reach in real life. But in here, I might be able to." Sakuya must have picked up on his sorrow and connected it with Asuna. It made my blood boil that Sugo, the same one that was keeping me from Argo, was also keeping Asuna from Kirito. He was keeping my gamer family apart and he was gonna pay for it.

"I see. Well, we would be happy to help," Sakuya said.

"But the thing is," Alicia stepped up to finish the thought. "It will take us at least a week to get the gear for everyone."

"Oh, I see," Kirito recovered and smiled. "That's OK. I don't want to raid the tree, like you guys. I just want to get to the top as fast as possible. I'll figure something out."

"Yeah, you are gonna go by yourself aren't you? Reckless fool," I muttered, holding myself back. Kirito produced a large pouch and walked up to Alicia.

"Here, this should help pay for the raid." He gave the sack to Alicia and she almost dropped it. She had a look of shock on her face when she looked in.

"Sakuya! Take a look!" Sakuya walked up and looked into the bag, then she too looked shocked.

"A hundred thousand pieces of Midral Yrld?" She looked at Kirito, "Are you sure? You could build a castle on prime land with this."

Kirito smiled. "Nah, I don't need it."

"With this, we could have enough to buy Mythic Level gear for the whole raid!" Alicia said, clearly excited.

"We will get ready as fast as we can," Sakuya said. "We have work to do! Let's go!" We all took off after Sakuya and Alicia, I tried hard to blend with the crowd.

After we were out of earshot I flew up next to Sakuya. She looked at me, clearly annoyed.

"Why would you not want to talk to him?" She demanded, "I am certain you would know each other."

"That's the problem. If he has gotten in touch with my friends in the real world then they may come in after me. Until I know more about how SAO players are affected in this world. I don't want them in any more danger." Sakuya's face softened.

"You are truly thinking ahead, I never thought of it that way," She said, facing forward again. "He did seem different. And if he has just entered and is already on par with Eugene, and is able to produce that much Yrld." She stopped in her tracks. "How much do you have?" She asked, slightly annoyed.

In the week that I was here, I never once thought about how much money I had. I opened my menu. I read the number that represented my money and panicked.

"It says," I gulped. "150,000." Sakuya smacked my head.

"You dolt! Why didn't you say something sooner? We could have been raiding the Tree by now!"

"You didn't ask! Sorry! I never thought about money!" I said, rubbing my head. I produced another 100,000 Yrld and handed it to Sakuya.

"With this, we will be raid ready by tomorrow," Alicia said. "I'll head back to Fraelia to round up our party. We will meet at the base of the tree tomorrow, Dragoons blazing."

I smiled. "I can't wait to see that," Alicia smiled and patted my back.

"Let's get you back to your lady friend, eh?" She said. I nodded to her.

The two races parted ways, The Cat-Sith to the west, Me and the Sylphs blazing east as fast as we could. After we passed the mountain range dividing the outside lands with the central lands Sakuya spoke up.

"When we get back to Swilvane I will need you to round up the people on this list." She sent me a message with about 40 peoples names on it.

"Got it. Meet at the government building?" I said, closing the message.

"Yes, I will take a few and scout for armor. When we find some we will message you to have the group come armor up. Then we'll talk strategy." She finished her plan.

"Sounds good, let's gear up!" I said, firing the group up. A cheer rose up from behind me. The entire group shot towards Swilvane at top speed.

3

The last few hours of the day were a blur. Rounding up the raid group. Getting them geared up with everything they needed. And talking about strategy for the raid.

"So someone needs to fill the noob in over here," I said sarcastically.

"Oh, right. Sorry," Sakuya said as we were eating some dinner. "So the raid is very straightforward. It starts inside the tree, at the very bottom. The goal is to fly to the top and touch the gate. When you do, it will open and the way forward will be clear." I was confused.

"And how has it not been beaten? What's the catch?" I asked. A player to my left spoke up.

"It is simple, what isn't simple are the guardians that we have to fight."

"And let me guess. They are all stupid strong?" I asked.

"Not even that! The guardians alone are relatively weak. It's the number of them that's staggering. The longer a party is in the Tree, the more that show up."

"So you have to hit fast or its no good," I summarized.

"Correct. And the higher the player gets in the Tree, the faster they spawn above you."

"So no matter how many you have. If you don't get to the top within maybe 5 minutes it's impossible," I said.

"And it's not possible for a small group to go. They hit hard enough to wipe a group smaller than 5," another spoke up.

"You sound like you are speaking from experience?" I asked,

"Sadly, I am," He said, looking annoyed. So we bounced Ideas around. Going one by one is out. We wouldn't be able to hit them with sword combat alone.

"Why don't we just blast them with magic over and over? Forcing them back to where they spawn," I offered. Sakuya pondered this for a minute.

"That might work if we combine it with the Dragoons fire breath. But we may run out of mana before we have them pushed back,"

"And the Dragoons can only use their Fire Breath attack once every 3 minutes," someone added. I thought for a minute, trying to think of a good plan. Then I had an idea.

"So what if, we keep half of our mages back, and half of the Dragoon Riders back? They will stay back and restore mana in 3-minute intervals, long enough for the Fire Breath to come off of cooldown." I was on a roll, thinking back to the days when I was helping strategize for boss fights. "While they are waiting, the other half of our warriors and the other half of the Riders charge in and fight to keep the guardians from occupying the space that the mages and Dragoons open. We repeat that until there is a tunnel straight to the top."

I looked around, waiting for an objection. It was a crazy plan, that would require near perfect timing and no casualties from anyone to work. Sakuya tapped the table, thinking. Then she looked up, smiling.

"That's the most solid plan we have had for a raid," she said. "I'll relay the plan to Alicia to get her opinion, but I think she will agree that this is the best plan we have." She got up and addressed the party. "We need those with the highest magic skills to separate into a group. Then you all need to stock up on as many mana potions as you can carry, everyone else, stock up on healing potions." She turned to me "You seem to know your way around a raid. I will allow you to lead this operation. if you wish?"

I looked down, staring at the table we were sitting at. It felt like it wasn't my place to say yes. Just step in and say 'Hey, I'm in charge now.' As I was about to say no, someone started chanting my name. It was only one person. Then it was the few next to me. Pretty soon it was a roar echoing through the night sky. Sakuya smiled down at me and offered her hand. I smiled, took it, and stood.

"With a reception like that," I looked around at all the people willing to help me, "How could I refuse?"

A cheer so loud went up that you could probably hear it from the top of the World Tree.

I looked off in the direction of the tree. "You hear that Sugo? When I get to the top of your precious tree. There will be hell to pay," I muttered under my breath. An alarm rang, then a female voice made an announcement.

"There will be scheduled maintenance tonight at 4 AM. All players need to be logged out by this time."

"Um... Crap?" I said, looking concerned at Sakuya. She shook her head.

"The best I can say is at least be asleep by then. Maybe you will get lucky and forced out of the game." I stared at the ground.

"Yeah, maybe," Sakuya put her hand on my back, then a thought occurred to me. "We need to talk," I said, ushering her off to the side. We walked out of earshot of the group of partying players.

Sakuya turned to me, confused, "What is it? Second thoughts?"

"Not even. But if it is true, and the head of this world is keeping people trapped. He will get found out. ALO might get shut down," I could tell she came to the same conclusion.

"Honestly, if that is the true situation, and this world is a giant cover up for something that sinister, then I would feel proud that my race were the ones that helped expose the man in charge for the evil man that he is." She put a hand on my shoulder. "Plus this world is vast, it has rooted in the hearts of its players. And those roots run deeper than the World Tree itself. Alfheim will never disappear for long."

She was right. There were multiple times when a game was shut down, then picked up by fans and brought back to life.

"You sound so confident in that. Let me guess, girls intuition?" I said, smiling. Sakuya laughed,

"More like a gamer's intuition," she said. I held out my hand

"This may be the last day we get to talk. if it is, I want to say thank you for helping me." Instead of a handshake, she gave me a hug.

"It has been an honor working with you, Blue Blur," She said.

We adjourned for the night. Hopefully my last night in the Virtual World. I expected nightmares as per the usual, but instead, when 4AM came, it felt like I was in limbo between worlds. I could hear voices. Like I was eavesdropping on a conversation.

4

"What the hell do you mean?" A girl asked. She had a soft voice that was all too familiar.

"Kirito sent me a message, saying he found him in a different game," A guy said. My vision became clearer but still misty. I was laying on a bed, a girl with shoulder length blonde hair sitting up next to me.

Argo. Or, technically, Teresa. She looked like she had been crying.

"What the hell?" She looked at me, "If I find out who is keeping him there, so help me-". Another girl stepped out from behind Argo, it was Peyton, Austin standing next to her. Both of their eyes were dark like they haven't slept in days.

"He will come back, Teresa," Peyton said.

"Drake is a stubborn fool. He won't stay down for long," Austin added.

"I'm going in after him."

Austin, Peyton, and Teresa all looked in the direction of the voice. Out of the corner of my vision, I saw my brother, Alex. He was leaning on the wall with arms crossed. He had dark rings around his eyes too, and his hair was messier than usual.

"Like hell you are! Your sister would destroy me if she found out you got trapped again and I let you," Austin said.

"Plus what would you do if you got trapped in there?" A girl with long black hair walked up next to him and hugged him. Was that Rena? "He would get pissed. Plus it would do you no good if you get trapped, but you wouldn't be able to help."

"I can't stand waiting anymore!" Alex shouted and punched the nearest wall. It's been awhile since I have seen him this worked up. Was he really that worried? "I'm sick of waiting for him. Now I hear he has been fighting by himself and faces near impossible odds!" He turned to everyone. "I'm going."

"I'm coming with you." A girl walked into the room, she had purple hair and was wearing a matching purple coat. Sky. "I owe him for getting us out."

I felt relieved for a second. That meant all of my friends had gotten out. But I hated where this conversation was going.

Austin and Peyton looked at each other, then smiled.

"Well I'm not staying here to face your sister's wrath, so I'm in too," Austin said.

"Same for me! Let's bring him home," Peyton chimed in.

"I'm going too!" Teresa moved to get off of the bed, but Peyton stopped her.

"No, you need to stay here."

"Screw that noise! I wanna help!" Teresa complained.

"You need to stay here. So when he wakes up, he will be with you," Alex said, pleading with her to listen.

Teresa grumbled for a minute. Then she laid down next to me.

"Fine. If you see him, punch him for me."

Alex nodded and looked at everyone. "Guys, get home and dive. We have a lot of grinding to do."

"Don't come!" I tried to say. But my voice wouldn't work. The group filed out of the room, leaving Teresa alone with me.

I wanted to reach out to her. It's like she was there, but I was just a ghost.

"Come back to me. You still owe me a cake, ass-hat." A tear streamed down her face as my vision went blurry again.

I was woken up by the sound of horns. I promised myself that I would be out by today. And I would pummel whoever was behind this and was making Argo cry.

5

I told Sakuya about my dream, how we may have company for the raid. She shook her head at me.

"Flastor, in times of stress, your mind can play wild tricks on you," Sakuya explained. "It may have been caused by Alicia's mind-calming spell. Causing you to see something that you want to see."

"Yeah, you may be right." But it felt so real. I stepped up to address the army before me. It was 4 PM, we would meet with the Cat-Sith at 5 PM and raid the tree. Then I got a message from Leafa.

"We are raiding the Tree now. Race ya to the top."

"Son of a-" I nearly cursed but Sakuya slapped me with her fan. "Sorry, we need to go. Now. Kirito and Leafa are raiding the Tree."

"You can't be serious?" Sakuya asked, but my face must have said it all. "Very well."

I turned to the group. "Change of plans, guys! We move now!" I held my sword over me, and the army cheered.

Sakuya tapped me, "We need to send word to Alicia."

"On it," I opened my menu and wrote a quick message, saying to meet at the Valley of the Butterflies plateau. I sent it, then looked at Sakuya.

"Done, let's go." I launched myself off of the ground, the army followed. We made our way to the center of the world. As we were flying, I couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching over me from above.

We had to of broken the record for fastest time from the edge of the world to the center. In 30 minutes we made the journey to the rendezvous with the Cat-Sith at the Valley of the Butterflies. They beat us there because the Cat-Sith town was closer to the meeting place. When we landed I was surrounded by Dragons.

"This... Is... Awesome!" I said, walking up to one of the Dragons. I raised my hand, the dragon nuzzled it. Then it burrowed its head into my chest. "Freakin' sweet! I want one."

"Look at you! We could make a tamer out of you yet," Alicia said, sliding off of the dragon. "So what's with the sudden rush?"

"That guy from yesterday, Kirito, has started the raid. We need to go back him up," I explained. "You got the plan?"

"Were on it, everyone knows their roles. Ready to torch those suckers!" Alicia said. She was clearly getting fired up.

"Good, let's get going," I lead the now massive army to the tree at top dragoon riding speed. As we flew, Alicia and Sakuya flanked me.

"So has the plan changed since Kirito jumped the gun?" Alicia asked

"Not in the slightest. Just don't hit him and whoever else was crazy enough to go with him," I said.

Sakuya smiled. "Leafa sent the message, so she's with him. And I haven't seen Recon in awhile. I bet he is there as well."

"And like that, we have our raiders. Still, only three? He's crazier than I thought," Alicia said.

"You have no idea," I said without thinking.

Luckily, neither of them pried into the matter. We flew at top speed to the central town of Arune. As we flew over, the players on the ground gawked at us.

Arune was seriously the coolest town I had ever seen. It was situated at the base of the tree and used the spiraling branches as higher levels for houses. I wanted to explore so bad it wasn't even funny. But the thought of getting back to Argo made me fly straight to the base of the tree.

"I'm coming," I said. Speaking to all of the people that were waiting for me. And speaking to Sugo, which I hoped was past the gate so I could pummel him.

We all landed in front of a massive doorway that stood open.

"He's still in there," Sakuya said, landing next to me.

"She's right. The doors remain open until the party leaves, or is wiped," Alicia added, landing her Dragon to my other side.

"Then let's get in there," I stepped forward.

A deep voice came from one of the giant statues flanking the door. "You are about to enter a fight that has already commenced. You will not receive the gift of flight if you are victorious. Do you wish to continue?"

A window popped up in front of me, saying the raid was already in progress and loot would be distributed after the first party rolled. I hit the blue circle to accept.

"Go forth, and fight honorably," the statue said.

"Here we go." I raised my sword over my head and shouted as loud as I could. "Advance!"

The army shot past me, shouting a battle cry so loud it made the ground shake. After the last of the group went in, I shot in with Sakuya and Alicia at my side. When I broke the threshold of the door, I shot up. I was met by a swarm of guardians that were flying around like bees in a hive.

Kirito was front and center, thoroughly getting his ass kicked. I shot up to him as he was about to get sliced. I raised my sword and blocked the attack.

"Hey buddy, miss me?" I said, not trying to hide anymore. Kirito had his eyes closed. He opened them and gawked at me. "Take a picture, it lasts longer," I said. I deflected the guardian's blade and slashed it. With that one hit, it vanished.

"Do you realize how worried you have everyone right now?" Kirito said, regaining himself and chugging a health potion.

"Did you tell them?" I asked, ready to draw on him.

"I only said I thought I saw you. I told them to stay away for now," I spun and got in his face.

"Idiot! They're gonna come anyway!" I groaned. "Hopefully we can get through before they dive in," I offered my hand to Kirito. "Let's get on with it. They will open a path, while we keep it open, rinse, and repeat until we are at the top."

"Got it, let's go!" Kirito shouted.

We both shot to the side to let the mages and dragoons unload on the guardians. I looked down at Sakuya. "Now!"

"Fire Breath! Attack!" Alicia lined up the Dragoons and they let out a wave of fire that destroyed half of the guardians.

"Fenrir Storm! Fire at will!" Sakuya ordered. A line of mages let loose a massive wind spell. Fully clearing the way. I nodded to them.

Sakuya closed her fan and pointed it at us. "Warriors! Forward to battle!" The fighting half of the army surged forward to hold the guardians back.

"3 minutes! Then get to the side again!" I yelled at Kirito. He nodded and we shot away from each other. We waded through the guardians, cutting them down like low-level monsters. I silently counted my kills. 5, 10, 20.

3 minutes was up, I went to the side. As I did, another wave of fire and wind shot past me, opening up more of the room. But things were looking bad. We weren't moving fast enough and a layer of guardians had appeared below the gate.

I saw Kirito and shouted, "We need to move faster!"

Kirito nodded. He was fighting back to back with Leafa.

I felt alone. But I kept fighting, adding to my kill count. 30, 40, 50. I moved as fast as I possibly could. Taking out guardians in 2s and 3s as I spun around the edges of the tree.

Another 3 minutes, another wave of spells shot up. This time packing more of a punch. It exposed the dome at the top of the tree. I was stunned at the combined power of the spells.

"Damn. Remind me not to piss off a mage from here," I said.

"Come on!" Kirito snapped me out of it. We dashed to the opening at top speed. Right before we broke through the line, more guardians closed the gap.

"You bastards! Get out of my way!" I yelled. Rage completely took over and I charged forward, disregarding the plan and surrounding myself. I cut down 10 more before I felt a thud. I looked down and a sword had materialized in my chest. Then a round of arrows came at me from all sides.

"...Ouch," was all I could manage. My health was going down fast. One of the guardians had appeared in front of me, readying its sword to cut me down. I'm not sure why... But I gave up... It felt like all the energy and determination that had been keeping me going had just drained. I closed my eyes.

"Sorry, everyone."

I sensed the Guardian bringing his sword down and I braced. Instead of hitting me, I heard a metallic ring come from in front of me. I opened my eyes.

A tall guy floated in front of me. He wielded a massive sword, bigger and wider than Kiritos. He had red wings and a flowing crimson trench coat. He looked at me, still holding the guardian back, and flashed a wicked smile.

"Sup, bro?"

6

I couldn't form a word. So Majiku talked for me.

"Get down!"

I felt someone pull me down. Majiku swung his sword and cleaved the guardian in half. Then started going to town on the guardians in his range. When I looked down, I saw Willow, with cat ears, wearing a purple and black tunic. She had me by the back of my coat, pulling me to Peyton, who was chanting a spell.

"What the-" I started, but Willow looked back, smiling.

"Shut up and let her heal you," She said, throwing me to Peyton like I was a baseball.

As I got close, Peyton cast a healing spell and my health shot back to full. I was still flying to her, but someone caught me. I regained myself to see Austin, holding my shoulders. He had a katana strapped to his waist.

"I... Uh..." I was still having trouble forming a thought. Peyton rushed forward and hugged me.

"Argo is going to be so thrilled!" She said. Austin was wearing Samurai armor and had red wings. Peyton was wearing a blue and black tunic and had blue wings.

"If she doesn't kill me first," I added.

"We can cross that bridge when we come to it," Rena said, appearing behind Austin and brandishing a broadsword on her shoulder. She was wearing a tunic similar to her KoB uniform. She had the mechanical wings of a Leprechaun. "Need to go up?"

I nodded. "There's a huge chance that I can get myself out if I can get to the top," I said. I turned and saw Majiku flying to me at top speed. I was happy at first, then I realized he was pissed. "Oh, crap." I couldn't move fast enough. He planted his fist on my face.

"Take that! That's from Argo! That's for not coming back!" He yelled, venting some anger.

"Maj, what the hell?" Willow asked, helping me regain my balance in the air.

"I deserved that one, sorry," I said. Majiku looked at me. Then his face grew soft.

"As long as you know you deserved that." Majiku held up his fist. "It's good to see you, bro," I fist bumped him.

"It's good to see you," I looked around. "All of you."

"Flastor! We are being overrun!" Sakuya called from below, I turned to her, feeling more confident than ever with my old party at my side.

"Don't worry Sakuya!" I looked at my brother, who had his sword on his shoulder, floating next to me. "The Cannon Brothers are on it," I said that with complete confidence, knowing that there was no way we were going to lose.

"Cannon Brothers?" Her eyes grew wide when she realized who was floating with me. She smiled and nodded.

I turned to my group and began the fastest raid briefing in history.

"We need to go up, fast. Every 3 minutes move to the sides of the room. The mages and dragons will blast a new hole that we need to keep open." Everyone was watching me, half determined, half surprised. "Fan out, each of us takes a direction and fight fast! Peyton, hang back and watch our health. Tell us to switch out when we get below 75% HP. When we switch, heal us with a combination of spells and potions."

"You got it!" Peyton nodded, She moved her medicine pouch to a handy position and started to cast a healing spell.

"Right," I faced forward. "Kick some ass!"

In a flash, we were all flying into the fray just like we did in our final boss of Aincrad. Willow was first, wielding a curved sword that had a purple ribbon flowing from the handle. She carved through 15 of the guardians easily, pushing them back to the wall. Rena was next, slicing and stabbing anything that dared be in front of her, she also mowed down 10 guardians in less than a second.

Austin was flowing with his Katana smoothly. He cut down 14 of the guardians so fast, they all dissipated at once. Majiku and I fought back to back once again. Wherever Majs' sword wasn't, I was there, mowing everything that came at his back. Between the two of us, we took down 40 in less than a minute.

3 minutes was up.

"Dodge!" I yelled.

Everyone dashed to the sides. Fire and Wind shot past us.

This was the money shot. The dome at the top of the tree was finally visible. I heard a bellowing roar come from below me. I looked down. Kirito was shooting forward, wielding his sword and Leafa's sword in front of him. I looked at Majiku.

"Going up?" He held his sword out.

"Top floor, same speed at that guy." I readied myself on Majikus massive sword.

When we were level with Kirito, Majiku launched me to meet him. I added to the speed by jumping and extending my wings to full span. When I got close I lined up back to back with Kirito, thrusting my sword forward. We both shouted defiantly, plowing through anything that stood in our way. It was like the force of us flying was cutting down anything in front of us.

We broke through the line of guardians. I split from Kirito as his swords drove into the dome. I skidded to a stop behind him. While we were up there it felt like the world had inverted. Kirito pried on the dome, trying to get it open. I stood behind him, ready to strike anything that came at us.

"What gives, man? Open the damn thing before they come after us!" I said.

"Yui!" Kirito said,

"Bless you?"

From Kirito's shirt pocket, a small pixie girl flew out and landed on the door. She pressed her hands on the door and closed her eyes.

"Daddy, this door isn't flagged as a quest door. It's locked by the system admin," the little girl, Yui, said. Kirito's eyes were wide.

"Which means..."

"Restricted Access! A player was never meant to open this door!" Yui finished Kirito's thought. I felt the anger boil inside of me.

"That tears it. Sugo is a dead-."

I couldn't finish my curse. All around us, the guardians started to form. Getting ready to strike us down. Then Kirito spoke up.

"Yui, see if this will work." He produced a grey card that looked like a credit card from his pocket.

"It's not like we can buy the passcode man," I said, starting to get annoyed.

Yui touched the card. It seemed like she just stored something inside of her. She then moved to the door and placed her hands on it. The door flashed and began to open.

"We're gonna teleport! Daddy, give me your hand!" Kirito touched Yui's hand and I grabbed Kirito's shoulder. I felt the familiar sensation of teleportation.

7

I woke up to Yui trying to stir Kirito. I got up and looked around. We were in a curved hallway. Not a floating city... Bummer.

"Daddy? Daddy, wake up!" I touched Yui's shoulder and lightly moved her to the side.

"I got this kiddo," I knelt next to him and lightly slapped his face. "Kirito, Asuna made sandwiches."

"Sandwich?" Kirito groaned.

"Priorities man, get up," I said, pulling him to his feet.

"Yui, where are we?" Kirito asked.

"I don't know, there's no mapping data for this place." She said sadly. Suddenly, she perked up. "Mommy is here," She said,

"Wait, if your Daddy, then Mommy is?" Kirito finished my sentence.

"Asuna is here," He said, determined. I waved him off.

"Go get her! I'm going to look for Sugo," Kirito was stunned that I knew his name. "He's the ass that's keeping me, Asuna, and everyone else here, right? He screwed with my head and made Argo and all of the others worry themselves sick. I owe him a mountain of hurt." I cracked my knuckles. Kirito nodded. We exchanged a handshake.

"If I don't see you again," he stared, but I pulled him close.

"Oh, I will see you again pal. I owe you your own mountain of hurt for ratting me out," I said.

Kirito smiled. "You're on."

We sped off in opposite directions. I ran down the hall. Looking for any signs of an important room or hall that would indicate where Sugo was.

After about 10 minutes I finally found a damn map. I ran up and down so many stairs. Hit so many dead ends that I nearly started tearing down walls.

I scanned all of the rooms, looking for a different sign. Maybe a console, or an office. After a few seconds, one of the rooms stuck out to me.

"Experimentation Room"

"You sick bastard. You ARE using them for tests," I said, gritting my teeth.

Room 43, It was 3 floors down and down the hall.

I dashed to the stairs and took them 4 at a time down, hopping over the railing when they spiraled around. When I got to the floor I needed I sprinted to the left. I counted the numbers on the doorways. 40, 41, 42, when I lined up with 43 I skidded to a stop. I looked in and nearly gagged. There were 2 purple blobs, with a bunch of tentacles sticking out, hovering over a row of holograms of brains. It was like I could smell a stink coming from them, even though there was nothing to smell.

"Gross," I said. They must have heard me because they turned to me.

"Who are you?" One asked.

"No one is supposed to see this!" The other said.

"You guys won't die if I cut you in two right? Like, die IRL?" I asked. They looked at each other, then charged me. "I'll take that as a no." I lunged forward and spun, cutting one in two horizontally.

"What the-" I stopped the other one by cutting him down. They both shattered.

"Seriously, nasty. You're gonna make my blade rust, and rust isn't even a thing here," No one was around to admire my joke. I looked around and saw a floating cube at the other end of the room. "Bingo, my ticket out." I ran to the console and felt around it, looking for a way to activate it.

I found a crease down the middle that looked like a card was supposed to be swiped.

"Oh, no no NO!" I hit the console in anger, it did nothing.

Then, down the hall, I heard a man grumbling.

"Stupid boy. I'm the god of this world, not him!"

I instantly recognized his sleazy voice. I ran to the door, leaned up next on it, and crossed my arms. Waiting. Soon a tall guy wearing a green robe walked in. His blonde hair was a mess. He walked like someone had stabbed the crap out of him. I realized that Kirito had gotten to him first.

"You may have bested me 'Gilded Hero'. But let's see how you feel after I take your precious Asuna's memories!" He grumbled. That tears it, it was Sugo, and Kirito had kicked the shit out of him.

"What was that about taking memories?" I said, he stumbled backward. "Hey guy, remember me?"

"What the hell? Who are you? How did you get here?" Sugo asked in a panic.

"Where do I begin?" I leaned up from the wall and uncrossed my arms.

"First I beat the shit out of a skeletal centipede from hell." I started walking to Sugo, slowly.

"Then some asshole picked my brain to pieces," realization washed over Sugo's face as he realized who I was.

"Then I fought about ten thousand guardians." I was standing over him now.

"Then I got punched by my brother." I picked Sugo up by his shirt and held him close to my face. "You are going to let me, Asuna, and all of the other 300 people you have here out. You will repair everyone's memories and make it so they don't remember a thing about your god awful tests. I'm already extremely pissed. If I were you, I wouldn't piss me off anymore."

He was shaking, but then he sneered.

"You know, the pain absorber is set to 0, that's why I'm like this. You better hope that I don't get the upper hand." He gripped my wrist. "Kirito may have been the best. But you were always second rate, nothing." He tried to flip me over his head.

"I said don't piss me off!" Instead of him flipping me, I picked him up and flipped him over me. I drew my sword and cut his arm off before he crumpled to the ground on his back.

"Gah, Not again!" He wailed in pain

"You really should not have told me that buddy," I said, letting out the annoyance that I felt when I was rated second to Kirito. "He may be the heroic Black Swordsman. But, I've got my own name, and it's not the one you're thinking about. I'm sure you know it, having picked my memories." I threw him to the ground and put my sword to his throat. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue? Say it," I demanded.

Terror had filled his eyes. I must have had that look on my face that I had when I went on my rampage.

"No? Fine, I will. They called me the Blue Demon after I cut down 6 people that threatened the girl I love. And I didn't even know I loved her at the time." I pressed my sword as close to his throat without breaking skin. I poured all of my anger out. "Now I do, and you've kept me from her. Where do you think you stand now?" He squirmed under my sword.

With that painful memory returning, except for my blackout, it was clear that my memories were fully healed.

"OK! OK, I'll let them all go," tears were streaming down his face. He got up, walked to the console, and activated it. I held my sword to his back.

"Let the others go first. Log them out," I said. Sugo nodded and hit a few buttons. Soon, the holograms of the brains disappeared.

"There. All of them are out, completely unharmed." Sugo said, "Now leave."

"Like hell! Let me log out," I said, digging my sword into his back. He squirmed and hit a few more buttons on the console.

"There! You can log out like normal," Sugo said, holding his hand and a stub of an arm up. I opened my menu to be sure.

I scrolled to the logout button and hit it, then hit the window that said I was outside of my territory. Instead of nothing, a countdown started. I canceled it before it hit zero.

Sugo thought I was pleased, "Now get out so I don't have to see your face."

I spun and cut 'The Fairy King' in half. He screamed bloody murder, as his lower body separated from his upper.

"What the hell? We had a deal! Are you really going to kill me?" Sugo groveled on the floor.

"You are stupid as hell, you know that?" I said, "I can't actually kill you here, moron." I stood over him, ready to let him know exactly how pissed I was. "You have extended the suffering of 300 people. You caused Kirito and Asuna to be apart from each other for 2 months. You kept me from Argo for 2 months. You stole my memories of my family. And you made Argo cry. I have no sympathy for you." I raised my sword.

"No, don't! I'm already in enough pain!" He held his hand up. Him saying that just pissed me off further.

"Pain? Oh, I'm sorry. You're in pain?" I asked. He nodded weakly, thinking I would spare him. "Welcome to my world, bitch."

I brought my sword down on his chest. With that, he shattered.

I stumbled back, dropping my sword. I looked around, not really sure what to do. I just stood there. After a minute I felt a presence in the room

"Nicely done, Flastor."

I turned to see a man in a white lab coat standing at the end of the room. He was tall and skinny, with short greying hair.

"Kayaba," I said. Staring at him out of the corner of my eye.

"It's good to see you again," Kayaba said.

I picked up my sword and threw it. It went right through Kayaba like he was a ghost.

Kayaba frowned. "That's no way to be. Especially since I got you out of Sugos trap."

"So it was you?" I said, remembering my first time here. "So what now? You expect me to say thank you after all that you have done?"

"Not at all. I come with a message," He said. "I gave Kirito the means to start a new world. If he sees to it that it sprouts, I want you to ensure it gains a footing in America." I thought he was joking, but he was deadly serious. I thought for a minute.

"If I can help I will. But not for you," I said, not sure of what else to say. He grinned.

"Of course, I just don't want to see the virtual world die. I mucked it up pretty bad. I want to be sure its left in good, pure hands." He turned and started to walk out. "Farewell, Flastor." Before he got to the door, he vanished.

I stood for a moment, taking in the fact that I was basically just handed the responsibility of the Virtual World for America. Suddenly, I felt a warm presence on my right side. It felt like something, in the shape of a person, was laying on me while I was standing up. I smiled.

"I'm coming home." I opened my menu and logged out. My body felt like it was being lifted out of the virtual world, and sent back to the real one.

) Return

When I tried to open my eyes, the light was too bright. I felt skinny and light. I squinted to let my eyes adjust to the lights. There was beeping coming from machines next to me. A curtain was drawn, dividing the entrance from the rest of the room. I tried to move, but someone was situated so I couldn't. I struggled to look down, but the NerveGear helmet blocked me.

I tried to get the helmet off with one hand, but it just wasn't working out for me.

Only one way to find out for sure.

"Poodle," I groaned. Teresa moaned. "Shitzu." another moan, but she spoke this time.

"Bad... Dog..." She nestled up next to me. I remembered what she said I owed her.

"Strawberry-" I lost my voice. My throat was bone dry and just trying to speak was tearing it apart. I tried again, this time a little louder "Strawberry Cake... Fishing..."

I could feel Teresa's eyes open on my chest.

"Flastor?" She groaned.

"Drake..." I corrected. Teresa shot up.

"You're awake!" She shouted. With my other hand free, I took the NerveGear off of my head.

"Stupid thing," I said, pushing it off of the bed.

I struggled to sit up. Teresa put her hand on my back to help. I looked at her. She had darker rings under her eyes. Her hair was longer too, it stretched past her shoulders now.

I smiled. "How long has it been since you slept well?" Teresa looked stunned, then smiled.

"I dunno. It feels like I've been awake since I found you here." Teresa smiled at me for a minute. Then a wave of despair and betrayal washed over her face. "Are you OK? Where have you been? Why didn't you wake up?"

"Uh... Um..." My head was still kinda fuzzy. I couldn't form a sentence to calm her down. Tears started to pour from Teresa's eyes.

"Why didn't you come back?" She buried her head in my chest and started to cry.

I heard rustling from the hall. Someone must have been sitting outside the room. The curtains got ripped back, revealing 3 people. One man, tanned skin, with black hair cut short. Two women, one was younger and blonde, the other was older and had brown hair. All three of them wearing glasses. They all looked at me like I was a ghost. I held up a peace sign.

"Hey," I said.

My sister shot forward, wrapping her arms around me. My parents weren't too far behind her.

"I can't believe it! You're back!" My sister cried.

"We thought we lost you when Alex came back and you didn't," My Mom sobbed. My Dad was rubbing my Moms back, He looked at me and smiled.

"Don't you know it's rude to keep the ladies waiting?" He said.

"My bad. I'm horrible with time, wonder where I got that from?" I said back. My Dad hung his head in exaggerated shame.

"Sorry 'bout that," I couldn't help but laugh. It was like I was only gone for a day.

I heard running coming from the hall. One by one more people skidded to a stop in my room. Austin and Peyton were first. I had to wiggle my arm out from under Teresa, who was still buried in my chest.

"Stop moving so much," she demanded.

"I have to say hi to people," I argued back.

"You're mine though! Forget them for a minute," she hugged tighter.

"Oh god. Squeezing to death," I said, only half joking.

Peyton patted Teresa's back. "Share, Teresa. You can have him back in a minute." Peyton smiled at me. Teresa finally pulled back and wiped the tears away.

"Fine, 10 minutes," she said. I was able to sit up further. Peyton hugged me softly. Austin walked up and we shook hands.

Sky came and hugged me too, nearly breaking me in half. Behind her, a bald guy slightly taller than her stood, smiling gratefully at me.

"When you didn't wake up, we thought you were gone," she said, pulling away. The guy walked up next to Sky and wrapped an arm around her. Then he extended his hand to me.

"Nik," he introduced himself. I took his hand. "I want to say thank you, for bringing her back."

"Uh, anytime." We both laughed at my inability to form a decent sentence. Rena walked up behind him

"Good to actually meet you finally," She said, "My real name is Reyna, by the way."

"Sweet. So I won't get them mixed up." I held my hand out, expecting a handshake, but she smiled and spread her arms.

"Is that any way to greet your future sister-in-law?" I was confused at first. Then it hit me.

"You're kidding?" Reyna leaned down and gave me a hug. Then my brother walked in. He took a space by Reyna. He wrapped his arm around her. Sure enough, on his ring finger, was a glistening gold band.

"Alex, I-," I was about to say thank you for coming after me, but he cut me off.

"And you call me a heavy sleeper," Alex said, smiling. I just smiled and played along.

"Yeah I know. I had a crazy night last night," I said.

"I'm sure you did," we fist bumped. I looked at both of them, still trying to get my brain to focus.

"I leave you two alone for 2 months and then this?" I said.

"Happens when you beat a death game together then learn you're only a town away," Reyna spoke up, leaning back on Alex.

I looked around at the people that were here. They all looked the same. But it felt different. More... Well real.

"Time's up, mine now." Teresa buried her head back into my chest.

This time, no one objected. I realized that I was forgetting to say something. Something that I swore I would do when I got back.

I tapped Teresa's head.

"Hey," She looked up at me. "Nice to meet you, Teresa Luna. I'm Drake Nofsinger." Teresa just started at me with her golden brown eyes, then smiled.

"Nice to meet you too," Teresa said happily. I leaned forward so our foreheads touched, we stayed like that for a few minutes.

"I should have said this when I left that day two months ago," I didn't want to close my eyes. I thought if I did, I would wake up back in Alfheim. "I love you." Another round of tears streamed from Teresa's eyes.

"It took you eight months," She smiled.

My Dad, always quick with the witty remarks, spoke up.

"Yeah, he's kinda slow on the uptake, like his Old Man," I glanced at him. Half death stare, half thanks.

"You aren't wrong about that," Teresa said, laughing. She locked eyes with me. I had to defend myself.

"Hey! No fair... The last two months don't count," I said.

Mom had her head on his shoulder. Dad gave me a subtle thumbs up.

"Do you hate me?" I asked, referencing a joke I made whenever I royally messed up and she was pissed at me. She looked up and kissed me. When she did, my mind focused on her. Then it started to become almost crystal clear. For the moment, it was just me and Teresa. We stayed like that for what seemed a century.

Teresa pulled back and smiled.

"I love you too. You idiot," she sunk her head into my shoulder.

I wrapped my arms around her, making sure that this wasn't just a dream. I looked back to everyone and almost thought it was. When I looked around, instead of seeing all of my friends in the real world. I saw the warriors that fought with me for years. We all just sat in silence. Finally together again.

A knock came from the doorway.

"Excuse me?" An older guy in a black suit walked in. He had grey hair and a matching grey mustache.

My brother seemed to recognize him and scowled. "For crying out loud. He literally just woke up Sean. Give him a minute would you?" Alex said, ready to throw him out of the room.

"I'm so sorry to interrupt. But now that you all are finally together. I have something to ask." He took off his black hat and sat it at the edge of my bed.

End of Fairy Dance

Acknowledgement.

Hey everyone! Glad you made it this far! I'm still up in the air about how this went. It was fun to be able to add in this part, as it does play off of my actual, IRL luck. Namely that I would, after 2 years of being trapped, be one of the ones that got trapped in ALO. It was fun to write the little twist of me fighting with Kirito at the end, and having the old gang swoop in to help. As with last time, thank you for reading, and take care!


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